Hailed as one of the four leading female writers of her era alongside Eileen Chang, Xiao Hong lived an eventful life in time of tremendous upheaval. A ‘great writer’, as proclaimed by renowned literary critic Hsia Chih-tsing, Xiao spent her last days in Hong Kong. She arrived in the city in 1940, where she wrote her magnum opus Tales of Hulan River in ill health. She eventually died in 1942 at the age of 31. Her ashes are now buried in Repulse Bay and at St. Stephen’s Girls’ College.

Commissioned and produced by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and featuring an award-winning cast and creative team, Heart of Coral premiered in Hong Kong in March 2013. The chamber opera was composed by Chan Hing-yan, winner of the Best Artist Award (Music) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Award 2013, whose works are renowned for their perfect fusion of Chinese and Western musical traditions. Chan worked with the young, talented playwright Yan Yu and director Helen Lai, whom Lin Hwai-min praised as ‘the best dance choreographer in the Chinese-speaking world’. Joining the stardust line-up was conductor Lio Kuokman, winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition 2014, and Louise Kwong, winner of Internationaler Gesangswettbewerb Ferruccio Tagliavini, in the title role. The combined efforts of these Hong Kong local talents helped ensure the incomparable success of Heart of Coral. It is a poetic and powerful portrait of Xiao Hong the writer, immersing the audience in the drama, emotion and conflicts in Xiao’s tragic but passionate life.

The three acts in Heart of Coral cover the most important and dramatic events in Xiao Hong’s life: escaping a marriage arranged by her family, she meets Xiao Jun in Harbin; together, they both travel to Qingdao and subsequently Shanghai, where they meet Lu Xun; and finally, a pregnant Xiao Hong rejects the advice of her friend Ding Ling and travels to Hong Kong, where eventually she dies alone. Written and produced half a century after her death, Heart of Coral is a unique piece of music theatre which explores Xiao’s life from a Hong Kong point of view, and pays respects to a major female literary figure whose works have transcended the social and political contexts which she failed to break free from during her lifetime.