Combining elements of Western dance and classical Peking opera, the ballet Raise the Red Lantern strives to achieve the film's visual intensity. Set in the warlord era of 1920s China, it tells the story of a beautiful but adulterous concubine caught in the household intrigues of a powerful mandarin. With its themes of women's rights, the role of the individual in an authoritarian system, and the heavy burdens of culture and tradition, “Raise the Red Lantern” has long been probed by critics—and deemed suspect by government censors—for its potential relevance to modern China.

Raise the Red Lantern tells of a girl who reluctantly becomes the third wife of a powerful mandarin in the 20s of the last century. Her beauty makes her husband desire her greatly, to the extent that he forces her to submit when she shows reluctance. She protests desperately but fails to avoid her tragic destiny. She idles away her life by watching operas in theaters or playing mah-jong all day long. From time to time she would seek chances to meet her former lover, a handsome young opera performer. But her private dating is spied by her husband's second wife who is jealous. Her adultery is caught by her husband on the spot. But the second concubine receives nothing but a slash on the face from her husband. Frustrated in agony, she tears all the red lanterns in the courtyard. Their husband, also their master, because furious and put his two concubines to death. Before dying, the two envious concubines forgive each other, entirely forgetting their hatreds.