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.
It’s one of China’s most famous folk tales, a dramatic unfolding of forbidden love. But who exactly were they, how did they meet, and what happened to them?
The story begins high up in the heavens, where seven sisters are playing in their celestial palace. They are the granddaughters of the powerful Heavenly Queen Mother, and the youngest of them is the most adored of all. Her job in the palace is to weave magical silks from the clouds, and so she is simply known as the weaver girl.
One day, the weaver girl and her sisters come up with an unusual idea—they want to visit the mortal realm. This is generally forbidden, but they go try their luck begging the Heavenly Queen Mother for permission. They plead and cajole, and their innocent charm softens the Queen Mother, who relents and allows them to go have fun.
The fairies descend to Earth and play and swim in the waters of Emerald Lotus Pond. Just as they are bathing, their clothes resting on the rocks by the edge of the pond, a giant gray ox bounds out of the forest and heads toward the water. The other fairies quickly dress and fly off, but the weaver girl is too late—the mischievous ox has her clothes.
A young man then suddenly appears, frantically chasing his ox. This humble cowherd tries retrieving the weaver girl’s clothing for her, as she covers herself, modestly hiding in the water behind a rock. The cowherd finally conquers his bovine beast, returns the fairy her dress, and looks away as she makes herself decent again.
As the weaver girl emerges to thank him, she sees something different in his eyes. And so begins an unusual friendship between heaven and earth, as the weaver girl falls in love with the simple, yet genuine nature of the earnest cowherd. She decides to marry him and stay in his village in the mortal world.
There’s one problem, though: Heavenly decrees prohibit gods from marrying humans.
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.
