“With Beijing Opera in the foreground, the film raises issues concerning homosexuality, thus engaging in an unusual public negotiation of the taboo question of sexuality in Chinese society.” This taboo love story between Xiaolou and Dieyi links the historical events together because the actions of the two main characters reflect the outcome impact on society of each turn of event at the time. Although Xiaolou and Dieyi grew up in the Peking opera troupe and both had Mr.Guan as a teacher, these two characters have very different ideology and represent two types of people when under tremendous social current pressure. Xiaolou, the actor who played king in Peking opera, has an ideology of a common man, he is very adaptable to the change of current
