A Lifelong Journey is staged in Shunyi district, northeast Beijing, on Jan 3.

Chinese TV series A Lifelong Journey became a hit at the beginning of 2022. The show was adapted from an award-winning novel by Liang Xiaosheng and it has a stage version.

As the first drama of the Grand Performances in Beijing seasonal productions of 2023, the identically named play was staged in the city's Shunyi district on Jan 3 and was greeted with rapturous applause.

The 180-minute drama tells the ups and downs of several ordinary families across three generations in Northeast China over the past half century, an epic of the lives intertwined with the country's development and changes. It gave a boost to a recovery in the cultural and performing arts market in the capital and contributed to burnishing the image of the Grand Performances in Beijing event, critics said.

The performance season, running from December to January, provides a platform to create high-quality artistic productions and vitalize the city's stage arts. It aims to offer easy access to fine stage arts, spur spending on cultural entertainment and promote the integration of culture and tourism, organizers said.

The drama of A Lifelong Journey was among the 13 major plays scheduled for the first half of January. It featured top-notch set design, diverse theatrical styles and vivid characters. Fashion styles and musical genres typical of past times helped immerse audience members into the drama, filling them with nostalgia.