Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, first shown in 1913. Professor Henry Higgins, who studies speech, makes a bet: he will take Eliza Doolittle, a poor young woman who sells flowers and speaks with a strong Cockney accent, and teach her to talk and act like an upper-class lady. The play is funny, but it is also sharp about class — in Britain then, the way you spoke could open or close doors. Shaw took the title from an old Greek story: a man named Pygmalion carved a woman in stone and fell in love with his own work; a goddess brought the statue to life. Higgins is a kind of Pygmalion, 'making' a new Eliza. Though actually, Shaw's play is less of a love story than people expect. The famous musical from 1956 and the film from 1964, both called My Fair Lady, take the same story and make it warmer and more romantic; that is the version most people know. In Chinese the play is 《賣花女》; the musical and film are 《窈窕淑女》。