Amazing Chinese Opera: The Lucky Purse

by Weng Ouhong

The picture book is adapted from the Beijing Opera The Lucky Purse. Xue Xiangling, daughter of a wealthy family from Dengzhou, is getting married. She encounters rain in the middle of her way to the ceremony and takes shelter in a pavilion. She happens to meet another bride, Zhao Shouzhen. Xiangling sees that Shouzhen is crying because of her poverty and misery, so she gives Shouzhen a lucky purse. Six years later, when there are floods in Dengzhou, Xiangling and her family are separated and she follows the refugees to Laizhou, where she enters the Lu Mansion and becomes the nanny of the Lu family's son. By chance, Xiangling finds in a small building of the Lu Mansion the lucky purse that she gave all those years ago to Shouzhen; she can't help but bursts into tears. It turns out that Mrs. Lu was exactly Shouzhen. After the two women learn the truth, they becomes sworn sisters,and Shouzhen helps Xiangling's family reunite. At the end of the book are knowledges of Beijing Opera. The illustrations in the book, both charaters and scenery and all other details, are delicate, expressive, simple and elegant. With strong artistic appeal, the book makes readers feel as if they themselves are in the play.

41 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2021