Traditional Opera

From kunqu to Peking opera — China's sung and staged storytelling

Traditional opera ICH includes kunqu (among the first UNESCO Masterpieces in 2001), Peking opera, yueju, huangmei xi, yuju, Sichuan opera, Tibetan opera, gezai xi and Cantonese opera (UNESCO 2009). Kunqu, the "ancestor of a hundred operas", crystallised the literary, musical and performative grammar of Chinese theatre under the Ming and Qing; Peking opera rose as the modern national stage; and regional genres carry their own dialects, tunes and folk customs into a richly layered tradition of stage, mask, costume and the four skills of singing, reciting, acting and combat.

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