劉胡蘭 : 三幕十二場歌劇 = [Liu Hulan: san mu shi er chang ge ju] = [Liu Hulan: Opera in three acts and twelve scenes. A collective creation by Combat Drama Club

太嶽新華書店 Combat Drama Club / Taiyue, 1948. First ediution, 7" x 5", pp. [2], 168; stapled self-wrappers; 72 pages of music at the back; very good. OCLC notes 169 pages, possibly a colophon. The last leaf here is the cast of characters. The subject of the opera is Liu Hulan (1932–1947), "a young female spy during the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. She joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1946 and soon after joined an association of women working in support of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). She was actively involved in organizing the villagers of Yunzhouxi in support of the CCP. Her contributions involved a wide range of activities, such as supplying food to the Eighth Liberation Army, relaying secret messages, and mending boots and uniforms. "On January 12, 1947, the Kuomintang army under Yan Xishan invaded her village in response to the assassination of Shi Peihuai, the village chief of Yunzhouxi, who was known to be loyal to the Kuomintang. Upon entering the village, Kuomintang soldiers rounded up several reputed CCP members believed to be involved in the assassination, among them the teenager Liu Hulan. The party members were decapitated in the town square. Before killing Liu Hulan, the executioners paused, giving her one final chance to renounce her allegiance to the CCP. She refused and was immediately beheaded. She was 14 years old. "In February 1947, Shanxi Jinsui Daily published the news of Liu Hulan's heroic sacrifice. Liu Hulan's name spread all over North China. At that time, the "Battle Theatre Club" of the 12th Division took Liu Hulan's glorious deeds as its theme, and in more than a month, it created the opera Liu Hulan, which gave the audience a lot of education in each performance. Six months after Liu Hulan's sacrifice, on August 1, 1947, the Jinsui Branch of the CCP decided to break the rules (usually until he was 18 years old) and recognize Liu Hulan as a full member of the CCP. After the liberation of the whole country, Liu Hulan's deeds were written into books, adapted into plays, movies and TV plays, and her former village was changed to "Liu Hulan Village" (see Wikipedia). (Inventory #: 69123)