Scenes from the Chinese musical, The Song of Youth. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

When Yang Mo (1914-95) published The Song of Youth in 1958, the writer captured the pulse of the young generation during wartime in the early 20th century.

Decades later, this literary classic continues to inspire. From its earlier transformations into film, television, stage play, and opera, The Song of Youth now finds new life in one of today's most popular theatrical forms: the musical.

From Oct 3 to 5, the musical premiered at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, bringing to the stage the power of youth set against the backdrop of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

Scenes from the Chinese musical, The Song of Youth. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In this new version, the character of Lin Daojing once again stands at the crossroads of growth and choice — her struggles, ideals, and love reborn through the language of music and movement.

To condense a 500,000-word novel into a 140-minute performance demanded more than adaptation; it required reinvention, according to the musical's director and playwright Jia Ding.

Staying true to the essence of the original, the musical focuses on the emotional entanglements and moral conflicts among Lin, Yu Yongze, and Lu Jiachuan, while their confrontation with the secret agent Hu Meng'an propels them toward different fates.

Scenes from the Chinese musical, The Song of Youth. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jia Ding's script reveals both his literary sensibility and poetic aesthetic. His lyrical rewriting softens the distance between the 1940s setting and modern audiences. Through romantic imagery and expressive phrasing, the musical becomes both nostalgic and new.

Music also plays a vital role in shaping the show's emotional landscape. The score blends nostalgia and intensity, performed by actors, including Cao Fujia, Wang Kai, and Gao Tianhe.

The stage design takes "the crossroads of life choices" as its conceptual center, creating a world of shifting mirrors and suspended structures that evoke the instability of an era when truth and illusion collided.

Scenes from the Chinese musical, The Song of Youth. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]