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not eating the bread chewed by other people." What she meant by"eating chewed bread" is a reference to imitating others either in styleof the performance or in the composition of the play script. She furtherexplains, "I'll go to the lowland if someone is on the highland; if there issomething lacking, I'll fill the vacuum by creating something different,such as the choice of the subject matter, the motif of a drama, the designof the plot, devices and techniques used in the drama" (Liang, 12). Thedebut of the Kunqu opera version of Pan finlian was staged in 1987, oneyear after the tremendous success ofWei Minglun's absurd drama on PanJinlian. Does she try to follow the footsteps of Wei Minglun ? If so, this isvery uncharacteristic of her as she refused to "eat the bread chewed byothers." If not, what is her motivation of creating a similar drama in sucha short span of time ? She presents the following explanation:It all started in September of last year (1986) when our troupewent to Beiiing to perform. In fact, I went to Beiiing twice last year,in March and April respectively. The audiences in Beijing were alltoo familiar with the four dramas I performed: "Lanke Mountains,""Yearning for Secular Life. Descending from Mountains," "BorrowingTea" and "Caught Alive." Since there would be an opera festival inSeptember in Beijing, I had to come up with something decent toshow to the audience of Beijing. I was in a dilemma, finding it hardto decide whether to get some decent play ready or to quit. At theend of my wit, I thought of using one episode of a traditional dramaabout Wu Song. The title of the episode is "Farewell to Brother andLifting Curtains," which includes how Pan Jinlian tries to seduce WuSong and gets reiected and how she meets Ximen Qing, the playboyaccidentally.