Two works, The White-Haired Girl and The Red Detachment of Women, were among the few "revolutionary performances" allowed during the Cultural Revolution; both drew predominantly from ballet.
Several Soviet troupes toured China in the mid-1950s, putting on such productions as La Esmerelda to favourable reviews;[4] at the same time, critics rejected a pure ballet as poorly suited to the country's needs.
A full-length story titled Magic Lotus Lantern (宝莲灯; 寶蓮燈) was staged by the troupe in 1957 and co-supervised by Tsaplin and Li Shaochun.
Put on by such organizations as the Guangzhou Military Soldier Song and Dance Ensemble and the Shanghai Experimental Opera Theatre,[8] these works were produced in response to a government call for new and innovative collaborative cultural products.
Such works included Rain of Flowers Along the Silk Road (1979), a story set in the Tang dynasty that used movements derived from paintings found in the Mogao Caves, as well as several based on Cao Xueqin's novel Dream of the Red Chamber (1828).
[10] The earliest productions, Stealing Immortal Herbs and Magic Lotus Lantern, drew extensively from the Chinese opera in their costumes and staging techniques, including combat sequences.
[7] Later works diverged in their influences, with some incorporating military dance elements and others drawing on the traditional movements of the Han and other ethnic groups;[8] Five Red Clouds, for instance, drew from the practices and stories of the Hlai people.
Others, such as the People's Liberation Army's Fires of Fury Are Burning (1965), decried racial violence outside China[16] or commemorated anti-imperialist struggles around the globe.