Appreciating Traditional Chinese Opera

Boasting a long history and rich cultural content, traditional Chinese opera, or xiqu, is one of the worlds three major ancient theatrical cultures, with the other two being ancient Greek drama and Indian Sanskrit drama. Chinese opera originated from primitive songs and dances and evolved by combining a mixture of folk songs and dances, ballad singing and burlesque. The rather developed operatic art we see today, which consists of over 360 different styles, took shape during the Song and Jin dynasties around a thousand years ago, assimilating the essence of various art forms, including literature, music, dancing, fine arts, martial arts, acrobatics and performing arts. The book tells the story of the traditional Chinese operas is of different art forms with a shared criterion, so that the operatic art, as a unique art form, actually reflects the influence of all the above art forms.