''Red Guards on Honghu Lake'' (Chinese: 洪湖赤卫队) is a Chinese modern opera in six acts. It was first performed in October 1956 in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

by the Hubei Experimental Theater Society (湖北省实验歌剧团). It is set in

Honghu Honghu () is a county-level city in the municipal region of Jingzhou, in the south of Hubei province. The city lies on the northwest (left) bank of the Yangtze River, across from Hunan Province and Xianning, Hubei. It is named after the adjacent ...

, Hubei. Its music was composed by

Zhu Benhe Zhu or ZHU may refer to: * Zhu (surname), common Chinese surnames *Zhu River, or Pearl River, in southern China *Zhu (state), ancient Chinese state, later renamed Zou *House of Zhu, the ruling house of the Ming dynasty in Chinese history *Zhu (str ...

, Zhang Jing'an, and

Ouyang Qianshu Ouyang () is a Chinese surname. It is the most common two-character Chinese compound surname, being the only two-character name of the 400 most common Chinese surnames, according to a 2013 study, and is one of the few two-character surnames that h ...

. It was adapted to the cinema in 1961.

Plot synopsis

The opera is based on a true story. In the summer of 1930, a landlord of Pengjiadun named Peng Batian takes advantage of the departure of the Red Army, cooperating with colonel Feng of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

to attack the Honghu Base Area. Secretary Han Ying and Captain Liu Chuang lead the Red Guards to withdraw, then raid Pengjiadun with the help of an Underground Party spy, lieutenant Zhang, seizing all the weapons and cartridges of the Kuomintang Army. Peng Batian is ashamed into anger, and bullies the villagers to confess the whereabouts of Han Ying and the Red Guards. Han Ying is arrested for rescuing the villagers. Peng Batian gets hold of Han's mother, attempting to influence Han Ying, but fails. Lieutenant Zhang brings Han Ying off, but loses his own life. Han Ying leads the Guards to annihilate the Vigilance Group and Baiji Society along with the 2nd Red Army at last.

References

{{Authority control Chinese western-style operas Operas 1956 operas Operas set in the 20th century Operas set in China Operas based on actual events Operas by multiple composers Honghu Hubei in fiction