Third Sister Liu

The film comes out of a folk tale. The tale belongs to the Zhuang people. The Zhuang are the largest minority people in China. The heroine of the tale is a woman called Liu Sanjie. Her name means the third daughter of the Liu family. She has had a beautiful voice since she was small. It is said that her singing could quiet anger. In the film she comes to a village. The villagers are under the thumb of a landlord. A man called Mo Huairen wants to silence her. For that he arranges a singing contest. Three scholars he has hired face her. Liu Sanjie beats them all and the villagers win. Wanqiu Huang and Zong-xue Xia take the leads in Li Su’s Chinese musical of 1960.