Moonlight Shadow in Shanghai

There has been a new chance to see the Huju opera Moon by the Lake, inspired by Jane Eyre in Shanghai:

临湖明月 (Moonlight Shadow)

Director: Yi Tianfu

With: Wang Bin and Zhu Zhen

Hongqiao Art Center,  No. 888 Tianshan Road, Changning District, Shanghai

November 3-4, 2026

The polished revised edition of Huju opera Moonlight Shadow, produced by the Shanghai Changning District Huju Opera Heritage Preservation Center, premiered on Tuesday night at the Hongqiao Art Center.

It adapts Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre into a Shanghai folk-opera performed in Shanghainese, the intangible cultural heritage that bears distinctive Haipai cultural genes.

Belonging to Huju's iconic "suit-and-cheongsam" drama genre, the story is reset in early‑20th‑century Shanghai, a city deeply embedded in the Jiangnan cultural sphere. It traces orphan governess Feng Mingyue and Lu Peiyan, master of Linhu Manor. The pair goes through conflicts and misunderstandings before developing a sincere love built on mutual dignity and equality. The adaptation preserves the spiritual core of the original novel while infusing strong regional Shanghai and Jiangnan artistic charm. (Zheng Yiran in China Daily)