ÒWhy do you have to BIND MY FEET?Ó cries a child inÓ A TÕANG TALEÓ, beginning the focus on WOMENÕS ISSUES that runs throughout the play. In China (during her most glorious dynasty), the Empress Mother Wu sends a teenage couple (and their friends) (up north) to spy on the (barbarous) Mongols. Discovering the Mongols are ready to attack China, they ride back to (warn) the Empress. Fireworks at the end scare away the Mongols this time.