'The peacock tail feather should be turned around a little bit," says Plum Blossom Jinju Opera Troupe founder and leader Hu Chang'e, correcting the decorative element on the girl's head, while teenage boys wave their swords, preparing to take the stage. 

The Jinju Opera will take place on a shabby outdoor stage built that day, in the center of Laoyingping, a village hidden in the mountains of Xiaoyi, Luliang city, Shanxi province. 

Two shelves along a narrow alley are filled with accessories, costumes and shoes, while more than 100 local villagers gather around the stage, standing in front of coal stoves to keep warm. 

"Hu is a household name here. She's treated like an international star. We're very excited," says Zhang Quanliang, the head of the village. 

Sun Shihu, a 63-year-old villager. says: "I am a big fan of Jinju Opera, and I watch more than 200 performances a year, especially Hu's performances. The troupe is close to us, and we respect the fact they are willing to spend hours on the road to come here." 

The 51-year-old Hu, a winner of the Plum Blossom Prize, the highest theatrical award in China, says she is content. 

She was formerly the director of Shanxi's Taiyuan Jinju Opera Theater but quit to start the Plum Blossom Jinju Opera Troupe in 2004. 

The troupe has more than 100 members and has performed in more than 1,500 remote villages for more than 10 million people. 

"Audiences love our performances, and they inspire me," Hu says. "The villages are often poor, but they are our foundation." 

Born in Qingxu county - known as the home of Jinju Opera - Hu says that even though her parents were fans of the opera and sent her to a local opera school at 10 years old, it was not a case of "love at first sight" for her. 

"The more I learned about Jinju Opera, the more I came to love it," she says. "Unlike today's society, which is full of opportunities and temptations, I totally focused on studying and performing. The idea was simple: I just wanted to perform on the stage, no matter how big or small, grand or poor it was." 

A performance in 2004 changed her life and inspired her to start her own company. An old man, who traveled for hours to watch her performance, told Hu that it was the best he had seen. 

"After winning the Plum Blossom Prize in 1999, I rarely had the chance to perform. I didn't want to stay in national theater forever. I still wanted to perform," she says. 

With the help of her husband, Wang Xiaofeng, also a Jinju Opera performer, Hu made a casting call for actors from Shanxi and was overwhelmed by more than 1,000 applications. 

"I applied because of Hu," says Hao Xiuxia, a 24-year-old actress who joined the troupe in 2004. Playing the role of daomadan (female warrior), Hao enjoys the fight scenes. 

Born in Taiyuan city, Hao didn't expect life on the road would be so tough. 

"I missed my parents because I couldn't go home for months," she says. "But like Hu says, 'We should cherish our moments onstage'." 

Li Ruiwen, 42, the troupe's oldest performer, also joined up because of Hu's reputation. 

A Jinju Opera performer for 30 years, Li plays the laosheng (old man) role. "My parents are farmers and their favorite hobby is watching Jinju Opera," he says. 

Performing in rural areas means poor conditions and low incomes. The actors typically sleep on the ground, eat cold food and perform in a village for four or five days, from morning to night. Every performance lasts more than three hours. 

Some villages are so remote, and the roads so narrow that the troupe has to walk and climb mountains, carrying props and staging equipment on their backs. 

Hu recalls a show at an Inner Mongolia autonomous region village, where the wind was so fierce that it blew away the stage. 

"I was about to cancel the show, but the audience cheered so loudly and was so supportive that we continued. We performed for five hours in the square, without a stage, lights or sound equipment," she says. 

For an independent troupe, the only way to survive, Hu says, is to be popular with audiences. She says the troupe performs 34 Jinju Operas and she creates four to five operas a year. 

Long Xing Jin Yang is one of the troupe's star shows and cost 3 million yuan ($475,000) to produce, since Hu called on Shanghai Academy of Drama animation professors to produce multimedia effects for it in 2008. 

Hu says she is basically following in the footsteps of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang. 

"The reputation of Mei Lanfang was not built up by officials or experts but was the result of recognition from audiences," Hu says. 

Hu adds the Plum Blossom Award marked the beginning of her career. 

"I started to learn how to sing on the stage after the award. Before that, I just followed my teachers' instructions and didn't have my own style," she says. 

"Having a reputation helped me attract young students and gave me confidence. I don't want to stop." 

Contact the writers at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn and sunruisheng@chinadaily.com.cn.