A heart-touching love story book has been adapted into a stage play, and will make its debut at the Shanghai International Arts Festival.

The play "Love Is Our Story" is adapted from author Rao Pingru's "Our Story: A Memoir of Life and Love in China," a touching tribute to Mao Meitang, the love of his life.

Mao passed away in 2008 at the age of 83. In his sorrow, Rao began to recollect and write down the memories of their life over the next five years. Rao had his last breath in Shanghai in 2020 aged 98.

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The book, with small framed pictures, charts the course of their life together – from their first meeting to their wedding, and the birth of their children. It generated a lot of attention from readers after it was posted online, and has been translated into English, French, Spanish, Dutch, as well as Japanese and South Korean languages.

The year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the book. The 100-minute play will debut at Majestic Theater on October 27 as part of the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

"The original book is an extremely gentle work," director Liao Juncheng noted. "The author uses most ordinary and trivial life fragments to convey their story in a turbulent era. It has a non-linear narration, with objects like clothes, letters and songs summoning their memories."

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The application of real-time projection provides a dual perspective of the two major characters, presenting the memories of two people on stage.

"In an age of 'instant love', do we still believe in eternal love? We leave this question to the audience, and we want to frame and seal this heart-touching love story with the play," said Liao.

Performance info

Dates: October 27-29, 7:30pm

Tickets: 100-680 yuan

Venue: Majestic Theater 美琪大戏院

Address: 66 Jiangning Rd 江宁路66号