Sunrise(Ri Chu, 1935)---Written by Cao Yu, this full-length modern drama tells of the corruption and luxury of the rich and the suffering of the poor in old China. The plot revolves around Chen Balu, a high-class courtesan in old China in the 1930s. Chen enjoys a pleasure-seeking life in the city but in the end commits suicide in the face of her benefactor's bankruptcy, the death of a teenage girl she has tried to save from forced prostitution, and the departure of her childhood boyfriend . After the founding of New China, the play was first premiered in 1956 in Beijing by the Beijing People's Art Theater and in Shanghai by the Shanghai People's Art Theater. It is in the repertoire of both Theaters. It's been adapted into a film by the Beijing Film Studio and musical by the China Musical Centre.
