A heroic achievement

The first thing he did was to increase the number of performances by taking the theater to perform in rural villages as much as possible. As he recalls, the theater gave about 300 shows a year and 80 percent of the shows were held on construction sites or in senior homes and remote mountainous areas.

The income was low and only allowed him to cover basic life expenses. However, Li remained optimistic and never stopped restaging classic Yuju Opera pieces, as well as producing new ones.

In 2003, he took over as the director of the Henan No 2 Yuju Opera Theater.

"It took many sleepless nights and a lot of patience to realize the revival of Yuju Opera, but it was all worthwhile," he adds. "We had to make changes to the old art form to stay out of the shadow of contemporary entertainment."

In 2013, Henan Yuju Opera Theater, which was established in 1956 but disbanded in 1985, reopened, and Li became its director. The theater performed in Beijing throughout 2015,2016 and 2017, and Li led the theater to livestream their shows online for three years following the outbreak of COVID-19. Though the number of viewers were not as many as there are today, he saw the possibility and hope for a new stage for Yuju Opera.

"For social media users, they get a glimpse of Yuju Opera. They may watch the performances for a few minutes or a few seconds. However, some of them will be drawn to the art form and will go to theaters to watch a full-length Yuju Opera performance. Those people are our future audience," says Li.