Farewell My Concubine

This novel follows the lives of opera students Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, whose deep bond is tested by the beautiful ex-prostitute Juxian, amid major events like the Japanese invasion, Cultural Revolution, and communist rule.

Through Peking opera's world, it explores themes of love, survival, identity, and art's power and limits during decades of political upheaval from the 1920s to the 1980s.