What surprised Gao most was not the subject itself, but its tone. Rather than the heavy-handed patriotism often associated with historical epics, the production unfolds with an intimacy that feels unmistakably contemporary. The score moves between soft guitar lines and electronic textures; even scenes of devastation arrive with restraint.
"It wasn't the style I expected at all," Gao says. "The music is light, gentle, almost tender in the way it tells the story."
The first song Gao heard, titled Black Snow, depicts soldiers walking through a village destroyed by war. Another, the opening number, begins simply — guitar, a faint drumbeat — before threading in the familiar melody of Crossing the Yalu River.
Gradually, he understood the architecture behind it all. "Everything serves the rhythm of the drama," Gao says. "Fan Chong is good at controlling theatrical rhythm. You become immersed without realizing it. The audience never feels exhausted."
At the center of the musical is not simply war, but a conversation between generations. The protagonist, Chang, is a modern young man transported into the past, where he encounters soldiers barely older than teenagers. Detached and directionless at first, he regards his grandfather's wartime stories with weary familiarity — "You've told me this 1,000 times" — until history becomes immediate and unavoidable.
"The confusion young people feel today is placed beside the values of that generation," the actor says. "It forces us to ask ourselves: What should we do with our own lives? How do we create value?"
The ensemble cast, meanwhile, built their characters from the ground up. Actors wrote personal backstories for each soldier, grounding the sweeping history in regional detail and ordinary longing. In the song FamilyLetter, traces of each hometown emerge. "That process slowly filled in their belief," Gao notes.
Renowned designers Liu Kedong and Kong Qingyao shaped the visual and lighting design, following the same "less is more" philosophy. Iconic symbols like the steel frame of the Yalu River Bridge and a rotating platform representing time and space convey the story's spirit with clarity and emotional precision.
Musically, the score blends rock, folk, electronic music, and regional Chinese styles, reflecting the diversity of the characters — soldiers from across the country, from Northeast China to provinces such as Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, and beyond.
"Music always serves the story and the characters' emotional journeys, helping actors inhabit their roles authentically," Fan adds.
Audience reactions have been profoundly moving. During a rehearsal attended by veterans and their family members, a 90-year-old veteran stood to salute the performers, as Fan recalls.
The musical's protagonist, Chang Weiguo, represents the perspective of ordinary young people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. He experiences fear, hesitation, and small personal victories, ultimately internalizing a philosophy of agency: the future must be earned, not awaited.
"The last line," Fan says, "'Your future depends on what you fight for,' encapsulates the heart of the musical."
