Based on Lu Xun’s 1925 novella, Remorse follows Juan Sheng and Zi Jun, two young intellectuals in 1920s Beijing who dare to imagine a life outside the rules that have been written for them. Their love begins as an act of freedom: Zi Jun’s declaration, “I am my own person,” becomes both a romantic promise and a political rupture. But as seasons change, idealism gives way to hunger, pressure, silence, and the unbearable weight of reality.

Originally composed by Shi Guangnan with a libretto by Wang Quan and Han Wei, 伤逝 is one of the most beloved modern Chinese operas. This New York adaptation reintroduced the work to contemporary audiences through a theatrical lens, bringing together operatic music, physical staging, and a newly imagined Narrator figure who bridges Lu Xun’s literary world and the audience’s present tense.

At the center of Remorse is not only a failed love story, but a question that still feels painfully modern: what does freedom cost when the world around you is not built to sustain it? Juan Sheng and Zi Jun’s tragedy is not simply that they love and lose each other; it is that their dream of self-determination collapses under the pressures of class, gender, money, pride, and social expectation.