Taiwan play about single mom returns to Beijing

She says her mother died 13 years ago and whenever she plays Xu on the stage, Chang feels close to her mother again.

"The play displays the happiness and sufferings of a single mother and her four grown-up daughters. I believe that we all share something familiar in our own lives as women, about dealing with hardships in life, about marriage and about the unconditional love from a mother," the actress says.

The director set the play in Taiwan's Juancun village, where barracks were built in the late '40s and '50s to house Kuomintang soldiers and their families from the Chinese mainland after the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan in 1949.

The village ended up as a permanent settlement and a distinct cultural hub in Taiwan.

"I spent a summer vacation in Juancun when I was in primary school. I was impressed by its unique culture because it has people, dialects, customs, clothes and food from various areas of China," says Chu.

All the furniture, kitchenware and costumes used for the play were brought to Beijing from Taiwan when it was staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts in March for this year's ongoing Beijing International Women's Festival.

Going by the audience reaction, it was a hit, according to Li Zi, founder of the festival that runs through August.

The theater group, founded in 1998, broke several records in Taiwan with its drama productions.

"When I watched The Wedding, I was overwhelmed by the acting and touched by the story, which was about daily life but brought out in subtle and moving ways," says Li.