Yongju Opera

Yongju is a local opera sung in the Ningbo dialect and popular around Ningbo and Zhoushan; once called "Ningbo tanhuang," it grew out of folk ballad-singing and the tanhuang tradition.

Close to everyday street life, Yongju features plain, earthy singing and excels at stories of family ethics and the ways of the world, making it the most quintessentially Ningbo of stage arts.

In 2008 Yongju entered the second batch of national ICH, becoming a key cultural emblem of the Ningbo dialect and the city's local-opera tradition.

Yongju is performed and handed down chiefly by Ningbo's local opera troupes.