Teaser

First performed at the Central Opera Theater in 1979. On January 8, 1976, Premier Zhou Enlai passed away, plunging the entire nation into profound grief. Before the Qingming Festival, following the traditional custom of honoring revolutionary martyrs, people spontaneously gathered at the Monument to the People's Heroes to lay wreaths and baskets, post leaflets, recite poems, and deliver speeches, expressing their mourning for Premier Zhou and their indignation at the perverse actions of the "Gang of Four." On April 4, the "Gang of Four" labeled the people's revolutionary actions as "counter-revolutionary," and that night, they cleared the square of wreaths and slogans, which further ignited the nation's determination to "protect the memorial tributes." Around 1978, before and after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the incident was politically rehabilitated. Filled with revolutionary fervor, Ouyang Yibing and Huang Anlun used the opera The Flower Guardians to document this great event, expressing their reverence and remembrance for Premier Zhou Enlai and their suppressed anger toward the "Gang of Four."