In 1999, writer Liao Yimei married the avant-garde theater director Meng Jinghui. After their honeymoon, Liao shut herself in her room for a month to write her first drama, about "trying to solidify the extremely powerful passion for love and record the passing of youth".

At the same time, Meng was exploring ways to make experimental plays become accepted by a wider audience. The two got together and their fruit was Rhinoceros in Love, which is arguably the most popular drama in China of the last 10 years and has been acclaimed as the "Bible of Love".

The story is simple: Rhinoceros keeper Ma Lu falls in love with his next-door neighbor Ming Ming and does everything he can to win her heart. However, Ming loves another man who does not care about her. Ma's friends try their best to help him out. On a rainy night, the desperate Ma kills his rhinoceros and kidnaps Ming.

Why a rhinoceros? Because they have bad eyesight, which Liao uses to represent blind love.

What appeals to the audience is not the extreme love story itself but the breathtaking lines, the direct and frank words that sound like emotional poem and declaration of love. All fans of the play can recite some of the trademark lines.

"Last May we revived the play at the Citycomb Theater. One day I bought a straw topi at a small boutique in a street. After I bargained with the girl and put the hat on, she suddenly recognized me and started to recite the first line of the play, `Dusk is the time when my eyesight is worst ' Wearing that new hat, I stood there silently, listened to her with a kind of shame and had no idea what to say," Liao says.

"I have met quite a few such ordinary but loyal fans casually over the past 10 years, but every time I feel something incredible. I never imagined the play would have such a lasting power before I wrote it. A decade has passed, the play has touched millions of people," she says.

Rhinoceros in Love premiered in Beijing in the summer of 1999. The play has been performed 260 times, to 200,000 people throughout China and even toured Seoul. Meng has become one of China's leading avant-garde theater directors; Liao has written sold-out plays such as The Amber and An Exotic Encounter; many young actors have risen to fame after performing the play; more than 200 student drama companies at 1,000 campuses have put on the production.

Rhinoceros in Love is a kind of miracle on China's drama scene.

"Love is the flame, the fireworks of life. The play gives full play to the passions, the power of an irresistible youthful crush," says director Meng, "Time has not worn out its impact. Those audiences who grew up with the play will reminisce about their lost loves, while new audiences of young people in love get inspiration from it."

Last night, Rhinoceros in Love began the first of its 261 shows at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), followed by a 20-city tour of China.

As Valentine's Day falls on Saturday, take your lover to watch the "Bible of Love". Its declaration of love is more powerful than a bar of chocolate or a bouquet of roses.

7:30 pm, until Feb 21
West of Tian'anmen Square, 6655-0000
Story by Chen Jie, photo by Jiang Dong