Lu Opera (Luju)

Lu opera grew from the mountain songs of the Dabie range in western Anhui, the menge songs of Hefei, the folk songs of Chaohu and the flower-lantern dances along the Huai River, absorbing the vocal styles of luogu storytelling, duangong and haizi theatre. Because its creative and performing centre lay in central Anhui, once under the jurisdiction of Luzhou prefecture, it took the name "Luju." It entered the first national ICH list in 2006 under traditional opera.

Lu opera is built on two great vocal systems—"flower tune" and "main tune"—lively and humorous, rich in everyday life, with warm and witty dialect speech; its traditional plays draw on ordinary townsfolk and family stories, making it among the most folk-rooted of Anhui's regional operas.

Lu opera represents the folk theatre of central Anhui, carrying the dialect art and rural culture of the Luzhou region, and holds real value for the study of how the vocal styles of Yangtze-Huaihe regional opera formed and evolved.

The Hefei Lu Opera Troupe is the core home of Lu opera's transmission and performance.