Qu Zijiao, Art Director and President of Liaoning Ballet (COURTESY PHOTO)

The story of Hua Mulan, the amazing Chinese heroine who fought against invaders, has been the subject of ballads, plays and animated films. On August 23, it hit the David H. Koch Theater in New York as a ballet for the first time. Qu Zijiao, Art Director and President of Liaoning Ballet, which will also tour Canada with the new ballet, Hua Mulan, was in candid conversation with Beijing Review about how the art form can tell the stories of China's heroes to an international audience. This is an edited excerpt of the conversation:

I first read the story of Hua Mulan, a legendary Chinese warrior woman who lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589), in my textbook when I was a teenager.

There was a war and she joined the army in place of her father, as he was old.

Although I couldn't entirely understand her filial piety and loyalty at that time, the heroic figure who dressed herself up as a man to fight courageously in her father's place left an indelible impression on me.

As the art director of Liaoning Ballet, based in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, I have directed many world classics featuring various foreign heroic figures. However, there are no Chinese heroes and heroines on the ballet stage as the art form comes from abroad. In order to present Chinese heroes and heroines and tell China's stories to an international audience, we embarked on the task to develop original Chinese ballets.

A scene in the ballet Hua Mulan (COURTESY PHOTO)

Hua has a widespread influence and appeal not only in China but also in the rest of the world. In 1998, the story of Hua was adapted into an animated film by Walt Disney, making her an iconic figure representing the Chinese culture and loved by people from all over the world.

Cultural exchanges help people from different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other so as to bring countries closer. Using a universal art form to represent traditional Chinese culture as well as Chinese values is the most effective way of conducting cultural exchanges.

Art knows no boundaries. It is our constant pursuit to bring art that combines China's national characteristics and contemporary aesthetics to the world. We will continue to tell the story of Hua and spread her heroic spirit.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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