Kaige Chen's 1993 film Farewell My Concubine traces the development of several characters and the evolution of China throughout the twentieth century, from the Warlord Era in the 1920s until the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. The social and political upheavals occurring in the country mirrors the strife in the personal lives of Cheng Dieyi, Duan Xiaolou, and Juxian. War, chaos, and social turbulence are apt backgrounds for the depiction of these three central characters. The events of the film begin in Beijing during the warlord era, in 1924. A prostitute names Yanhong carries her child through a crowded public area, where a performance by the Beijing opera enthralls a rowdy crowd. Yanhong ignores a man who calls her a whore, an act that sets the stage for one of the film's overarching themes: social class conflict and the ill treatment of both actors and of prostitutes. During the performance, a young boy names Laizi tries to run away from his troupe, and a bold teenager named Shitou proudly beats a brick over his head as a display of prowess and strength. His teachers subsequently beat him for his divergence from the script, and while he is being badly beaten, the prostitute with the young boy wave to him kindly.

             The Beijing Opera school doubled as a sort of orphanage, and Yanhong brings her boy over for enrollment. She begs the master, "Don't look down on us." The boy is denied entry because he has six fingers on one of his hands; Yanhong runs into the alleyway, cuts off her son's extra finger with a cleaver, and returns to the master. Her son, Douzi is admitted into the school, but is promptly called a "son of a whore" in the boys' dormitory. The school is run rigorously, with an oppressive atmosphere and almost tyrannical atmosphere. Soon, Shitou takes Douzi under his wing and the two not only become stage brothers but also very close friends.

             From this early in the film, sexuality and sexual identity emerge as major issues for Douzi.