At the end of 2015, Wang Zhaoju received news that his father was gravely ill while he was in Beijing. He rushed home overnight, only to find his father had already passed. The inability to see his father one last time became a lifelong regret. For a long time after returning to Beijing, Wang remained immersed in the somber shadows of grief, eventually resolving to create a work as a profound tribute to the man who shaped his life.

Wang’s artistic journey was inseparable from his father’s guidance and the nourishment of rural opera. It was his father who first led him into the world of opera, where he encountered its vivid beauty and discovered his own artistic calling. The stage awakened not only his imagination but also his lifelong passion for portraying life through art.

Though conceived as a memorial, Father’s Stage does not depict his father directly. Instead, it honors a stage that belonged not only to one man, but to generations of villagers rooted in the same soil. To deepen the emotional resonance, Wang included his wife and son—positioned at the far right—symbolizing the legacy and continuity of rural opera from one generation to the next. Through this gesture , the work transcends personal sorrow to become a beacon of hope that this cherished tradition will continue to shine for years to come.