Introduction

To introduce Chinese opera to children of our day and age, Guo Guang selected the story of the “Three Kingdoms”, one familiar to children, to produce a Chinese opera for children. Of all the incidents in the Three Kingdoms, “The Battle of Red Cliff” is the most intriguing. A Confrontation of Heroes is a popular Chinese opera about the famous “Battle of Red Cliff.” Based on the opera, this production is a story about a modern boy named Ni Zhong-ji who transcends time and space and goes back to the time of the Three Kingdoms. He meets Sun Shang-Xiang, “Princess Xiang-Xiang” (the young sister of Sun Quen), an imaginative and lively girl, and they help Zhou Yu to come up with the trick of “Jiang Gan Stealing the Letter” on the eve of the battle and together they experience the famous “borrowing arrows with straw ships” along with Kong Ming and Lu Su. He takes the children on a fantastic adventure of the Three Kingdoms in Chinese Opera.
This is one of the most spectacular scenes of the contest of wits in Ancient China. The production introduces both Ancient History and Chinese Opera to children. In the scene, “Borrowing Arrows with Straw Ships,” we have designed a special dance of “scarecrows” to the accompaniment of drumbeats and give every child in the audience a specially designed safety arrow for them to shoot at the scarecrows who shuffle among the audience. This will certainly enhance the audience’s enjoyment of the performance as they share in the fun together with the performers!
In addition, we have designed a scene of “artistic education” starring Ni Zhong-ji and Sun Shang-xiang, who also act as the hosts of this show to introduce the training received by the actors of Chinese Opera. This scene will help children to get to know and fall in love with Chinese Opera.

About Guo Guang Opera Company

In 1995, after going through a rigorous review process, the elite performers of three military theater troupes, Lu Guang, Hai Guang, and Da Peng, of the Department of National Defense, formed the National Guo Guang Opera Company. With its primary mission of “carrying on traditional drama and encouraging new creations of dramatic art,” Guo Guang spares no effort in improving the quality of performance art, holding lively and diversified promotional activities to attract large audiences, performing on the world stage, promoting artistic education in schools, and innovating traditional theater. In 2008, the Ministry of Education assigned it to the Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts, under the Council for Cultural Affairs.
From the beginning, Guo Guang has devoted itself to instilling a modern sensibility into elegant traditional drama by its effective infusion of modern dramatic concepts. In addition to staging traditional classical plays, Guo Guang has created many new plays combining pulsating social themes with stories taken from literary works, history, and folk legends. Recent productions such as Journey to Hell, Wang Xi-feng Wreaking Havoc at Ning Mansion, Three Persons and Two Lamps, The Golden Cangue, and such mini-operas as Wang Yiu-Dao Divorcing His Wife, Dialogues at the Tombstone, as well as Chinese Musicals, such as Meng Xiao-dong, have won wide acclaim and have been nominated for and won the Taishin Art Award and the Golden Bell Award. The achievements of the company’s Artistic Director, Wang An-chi, and its leading actress, Wei Hai-min, have been recognized in their being named as recipients of the National Literary Award.