Pawn, a music drama created by Karmia Chan Cao, brought deep thinking to Chinese audience in July.

The actors and actresses of Pawn are composed of students of Stanford University who performed to the Beijing audience in Shiji Theatre from July 22-24.

Karmia Chan Cao, a senior at the Stanford University, is the creator, writer, composer and director of the drama. She, a 22-year-old  Canadian Chinese is very proud of her Chinese ancestry. She is majoring in Creative Writing and was recently voted one of the 15 most influential undergraduates by Mochi Magazine.

Pawn tells of a young Asian-Canadian  man called Abraham Niu who fights with the American forces in Afghanistan. Abraham is in the army fighting because he wants to take revenge for the killing of his elder brother in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. However, he is killed in the rescue of an Afghan child one night when is out for mission.

At the moment of life and death, he chooses to rescue others. To his family, they lost two sons because of the 9-11 attack.

The probe of human nature is evaluated highly by the audience. Wang Can, one spectacular, said that she was moved greatly by the kind human nature and the deep love among the family members.

In this drama, Cao also tells of the miserable experience of Chinese workers in North America. She said human beings could forget something, but not the history that stands for a people's dignity. "We usually choose to forget the scary things and miserable history, but the dignity of Chinese people should not be forgotten," Cao said.

The average age of Pawn's actors and actresses is only 21, and they, having no advantaged equipments, have the same faith and same inspiration.

Cao's group, at present, shows their drama all over the world on their summer international tour for Pawn. Though there are lots of difficulties, they will persist, like the main theme of this drama, "the only way is forward".