The creation of the drama was inspired by Mao Zedong's publication Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, whose agenda was the development of social entertainment for workers, peasants, and soldiers.
His wife Jiang Qing played a significant role in devising both the words and the music, which at times led to a power struggle with Liu Shaoqi over the opera's ideological message.
It is the summer of 1963 and the loading process is overseen by Party Branch Secretary and hero Fang Hai Chen who ensures the boat leaves on time so it arrives for sowing season.
He schemes to switch the rice with similar looking glass fiber to ruin the revolution's reputation and leave 2000 loads of wheat unprotected for the coming storm to destroy.
[5] The moral of the opera is to reinforce the class struggle between peasant workers and the greedy bourgeois who have profited from the hardships of laborers during the Cultural Revolution.