A scene from  Yimeng, the latest production by the National Ballet of China. [Phto provided to China Daily]

In May 1973, the company premiered Ode to Yimeng Mountain as a tribute to residents of Yinan county in East China's Shandong province who supported Communist troops during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the following War of Liberation (1946-49).

The local women, known as the "Red Sisters", not only helped these soldiers by making shoes and clothes for them but also sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect them. Ode to the Yimeng Mountains was adapted into a film in 1975 by the People's Liberation Army's August First Film Studio.