A Love Story: The Village Boy and the Fairy
An ancient romance brought to life on stage in Shen Yun’s 2025 production
The traditional Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day takes place every year on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. Known as the Qixi Festival, this holiday celebrates the pure love between a young cowherd and a heavenly fairy, and their remarkable story.
And so, when the Heavenly Queen Mother finds out that her beloved granddaughter has fallen in love with a mortal, she is furious and sends her celestial troops to capture the weaver girl and return her home.
The sky darkens as the menacing celestial army descends upon the village, seizes the weaving girl, and tears the lovers apart. With one wave of her magical hairpin, the Heavenly Queen Mother creates a deep gorge that becomes a raging river preventing the cowherd from reaching his true love.
The young man is heartbroken, yet determined. Throwing all caution to the wind, he leaps into the churning waters, fighting until his last breath to reunite with his bride.
But the force of the celestial storm is too great, and the waters too violent. With one last terrible wave, the young man is overpowered, loses consciousness, and begins to sink… deep to the bottom…
All along the Heavenly Queen Mother has been watching from above. She must admit that the man’s sincere heart and determination are quite impressive. Touched, she sends a beam of light deep into the river, corralling the limp body of the young man, and lifting him back up to shore.
He awakes, coughs up some river, and stands back up, no worse for wear.
Alas, the star-crossed lovers cannot live together as a married couple, but the Queen Mother feels for them and devises a compassionate solution.
Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, the lovers are allowed to reunite. The cowherd is granted passage to the sky, ascending a bridge formed by a flock of magpies. There, between heaven and earth, he meets the weaver girl, who comes down to spend a day with her love.
And once a year from that day forth, Chinese people have celebrated the couple with the Qixi Festival, a reminder of the power of true love, innocence, and devotion.
This fairy tale, commonly known as niu lang zhi nü, or the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, was part of Shen Yun’s 2025 production.
