(The leading character, Prince Sou-Chong has a song early in the show, "Immer nur lächeln" ("Always smiling") which describes this.)

It was not a great success, and Lehár later revised it, under the new title of Das Land des Lächelns, which was first performed, at the Metropol Theater, Berlin [de], on 10 October 1929.

[1] Sadler's Wells Opera produced it in London in the late 1950s, after the success of Lehár's The Merry Widow starring June Bronhill had rescued the company from bankruptcy.

In 1991, Takarazuka Revue's Snow Troupe performed a Japanese language version of Das Land des Lächelns.

The production was adapted and directed by Nobuo Murakami, and starred Maki Ichiro as Prince Sou-Chong, Risa Junna as Lisa, and Yōka Wao as Gustav von Pottenstein.

In act 1 in Vienna, the heroine Countess Lisa marries a Chinese prince and returns with him to his homeland despite the warnings of her friends and family.