Beiguan Opera and Beiguan Music

Beiguan opera (known in Taiwan as "luantan") and beiguan music are vocal and instrumental systems that reached Taiwan from the mainland during the Qing dynasty, named for their position north of the softer nanguan, and prized for their bright, robust and percussive sound regarded as solemn and sacred. From the mid-Qing to the end of Japanese rule beiguan was the most prevalent folk music and theatre in Taiwan, its sound ringing through every festival, temple fair, wedding and funeral for over two centuries. It has been registered by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage as an "important traditional performing art," with luantan opera designated in 2014.

Beiguan centres on the suona, gongs, drums and silk strings, and the playing of "baxian" deity-plays to thank the gods and bring blessings is the most important part of folk performance; beiguan opera is complete in song, speech, acting and combat, and the custom is to open every show with a short auspicious baxian play. Preservers such as the masters Pan Yu-jiao and Qiu Huo-rong have long led training programmes to keep it alive.

Beiguan carries the religious ritual, operatic vocal tradition and amateur-society culture of Taiwan's folk life, a living record for the study of the island's settler society and temple-fair life, kept alive by beiguan societies in Taipei, Hsinchu and elsewhere.