In October 1935, following the close of the Long March, the Red Army was stationed in Yan'an. During the following resistance war and the liberation war, modern drama developed steadily in the area.

During the resistance war, some pro-revolution actors rushed to Yan'an and thus strengthened the dramatic forces there. As they were not familiar with the local life and customs, they did not write any new dramatic works. Therefore, in the period from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, it is no wonder that drama personnel concentrated on the performance of famous and grand plays.

On November 7th, 1942, the Lu Xun Art Troupe of New Fourth Army in Yan'an staged a play named A Man with a Gun by Pogodin (a Russian playwright), with Zhang Mei playing Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The director was a Mongol born in Fujian Province in southeast China. This was the first time Lenin was modeled in Chinese theater.