Suzhou Symphony Orchestra revisits 'Dream of the Red Chamber' in new production

When 62-year-old Ouyang Fenqiang stepped onto the stage in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on July 5, he was no longer playing Jia Baoyu.

Forty years ago, Ouyang became one of China's most recognizable actors as the idealistic hero of the landmark 1987 television adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, a series whose music and imagery remain woven into the country's cultural memory.

Jia Baoyu, the sensitive heir to the aristocratic Jia family, and his frail, beautiful cousin Lin Daiyu, share one of literature's great tragic love stories. Their romance unfolds against the decline of the powerful Jia family in Dream of the Red Chamber, the 18th-century novel by Cao Xueqin known for its psychological depth and panoramic portrait of society.

This time, Ouyang appeared not as Jia Baoyu, but as his witness.