The main storyline of Exhortations from a Virtuous Wife to Her Husband is about how a gambling-addict spends his entire family wealth on gambling. However, when he returns home to ask for food from his wife, he even despises his wife’s cooking and criticizes the dishes as unpresentable. Rather than loathe her husband, the virtuous wife instead gives her husband earnest and well-meaning advice with good intentions. Through her exhortations, the husband finally steps back from the brink before it is too late and gets back on the right track.

With only one dan(old and young female characters) lead and one chou(comic characters) on the stage, this show maintains the more traditional duo of one dan and one chou characteristic of Hakka Three-role Tea-picking Opera. The performance adopts a simple and unadorned style and presents everyday scenes in ordinary people’s lives. The back-and-forth verbal exchanges between a married couple is virtually performed with the metrical tunes and metrical chanting with accelerated speed from slow to fast, which is a great test of performers’ ability to sing and speak eloquently, and fully manifests the amusing language used in a Tea-picking opera. The lyrics of the singing are mostly exhortations that encourage people to behave well, give up bad habits, uphold a code of honor, and have moral integrity.

Chiang Yung-li, who plays the virtuous wife, is known for playing the Ching-I ( the role of a virtuous woman) character in Beijing Opera. After graduating from Fuhsing Drama Performance School, which is the forerunner of the current National Taiwan College of Performing Arts (TCPA), she took part in training and performances organized by the Rom Shing Hakka Opera Troupe, and is currently the leading performer of female roles in the troupe. Huang Feng-chen, who plays the husband in the show, is a senior Hakka Opera performer who started learning theatrical performances from her parents in her childhood. She was accorded the best sheng(old and young male characters) lead character player award in a Taiwan Hakka Opera competition in 1995.