Opera is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. As one of the Chinese traditional arts forms, it has unique Chinese artistic characteristics and is very special in the world of arts. There are about 360 kinds of Chinese operas. The UNESCO has listed Kunqu Opera, Cantonese Opera and Peking Opera as the representative works of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The traditional Chinese operas are performed with singing, reciting, acting and acrobatic fighting skills, and embrace the three artistic genres, namely, folk dances, story-telling and singing, and comedies. There are many different forms of operas in different regions in China, each filled with regional characteristics. Some notable examples include Qinqiang Opera in Shaanxi Province, Chuanju Opera in Sichuan Province, and Cantonese Opera in Guangdong Province. Generally, Peking Opera, Yueju Opera, Huangmeixi Opera, Pingju Opera and Henan Opera are the “Five Kinds of Major Operas” with the largest audience.

Dances in the primitive tribes are the beginning of traditional Chinese operas. Later, in the pre-Qin period, China’s earliest operas emerged. After the mid Tang Dynasty, China’s opera started to have its original form. The prosperous situations in literature and arts in the Tang Dynasty also provided rich nourishment for the independent development of the operas. By the time of the Song and Jin dynasties, operas in China entered a stage of modest development, integrating various art forms including literature, music, dance, fine arts, martial arts, acrobatics, etc. Zaju (miscellaneous plays) in the Song Dynasty, Yuanben (stage plays) and Zhugongdiao (various tunes in the gong key) in the Jin Dynasty, had laid a solid groundwork for the development of operas in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), which marked the matured period of China’s operas. The Yuan Dynasty saw a lot of great works in China^ operas;, for example, The Injustice Done to Dou’e by Guan Hanqing and Autumn in the Han Palace by Ma Zhiyuan. The Zaju operas declined from the Ming Dynasty, while the Southern Opera which first appeared in the Song and Yuan dynasties welcomed its most important playwright, Tang Xianzu, whose representative work is Four Dreams in Linchuan. Zhezixi (opera highlights), the somewhat independent and most brilliant chapters of a long opera, became popular.