Fang, a Beijing native in his 50s, who graduated from the directing department at the Central Academy of Drama, began adapting the author's works in 2011. His first was a one-man show based on the novel Wo Zhe Yibiezi (This Life of Mine), which tells the sad story of a low-ranking police officer in Beijing in the early 20th century. It was a big success when it premiered in Beijing.

"Rickshaw Boy will be my seventh Lao She adaptation. It's so classic and well-known that I was very nervous. Thanks to Siqin Gaowa, I have gained a deeper insight into the novel and the characters," says Fang.

In the play, which Fang directed, wrote and acted in, Xiangzi is the central role, with two other actors playing the role of the younger and the older Xiangzi. They will tell the story of his early life as a young man of simple needs, whose greatest ambition is to have his own rickshaw one day, his life after he is forced to marry Huniu, the daughter of his boss, and the day he is forced to sell his newly bought rickshaw to pay for his wife's funeral.