Peking Opera, also known as Pingju or Jingxi, is one of the quintessential cultural treasures of China. It is the most influential form of Chinese opera, centered in Beijing but performed across the country.
In the 55th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign during the Qing Dynasty (1790), four major opera troupes from Anhui - Sanqing, Sixi, Chuntai, and Hechun - which were primarily composed of Anhui artists, successively entered Beijing. They collaborated with artists from Hubei performing Handiao opera style. At the same time, they adopted some plays, tunes, and performance styles from Kunqu and Qinqiang operas, while also absorbing folk melodies from various regions. Through continuous exchange and integration, Peking Opera eventually took shape.
Peking Opera has standardized artistic presentation forms in literature, performance, music, and stage art. Its singing style belongs to the "banshibianti" category, centered on the "erxian" (or "erhuang") and "xipi" vocal styles. Peking Opera accompaniment is divided into two main categories: civilian plays accompanied primarily by the huqin fiddle, and martial plays driven by percussive beats (drums, large gongs, cymbals, small gongs).
The roles in Peking Opera are divided into sheng, dan, jing, chou, and za, with the last three no longer separate categories. The current main roles are sheng, dan, jing, and chou, each with its own performance conventions. The skills of singing, reciting, acting, and acrobatics each have their own characteristics. Peking Opera primarily stages historical stories, with a traditional repertoire of over 1,300 plays, several hundred of which are frequently performed.
Peking Opera has been disseminated nationwide and exerted tremendous influence, earning it the reputation as the "national opera." The Peking Opera performance system named after Mei Lanfang is considered representative of the Eastern theater performance systems, one of the three major performance systems in the world. Peking Opera is an important manifestation of traditional Chinese culture, and its various artistic elements are regarded as symbolic of traditional Chinese culture.
In May 2006, Peking Opera was approved by the State Council for inclusion in the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage lists. In 2010, it was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
