Hunan Kunqu Opera

Kunqu is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. It evolved from the Kunshan melody, and dominated Chinese theatres from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It is one of the oldest forms in China and has deep roots in Chinese traditional culture. It is known as "the mother of all Chinese traditional operas" and plays an important place in the history of drama, literature and music. It is listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO since 2001.

Kunqu was developed during the early Ming Dynasty (14th century). Today, Kunqu is performed professionally in seven Mainland Chinese cities: Beijing (Northern Kunqu Theatre), Shanghai (Shanghai Kunqu Theatre), Suzhou (Suzhou Kunqu Theatre), Nanjing (Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre), Chenzhou (Hunan Kunqu Theatre), Yongjia County/Wenzhou (Yongjia Kunqu Theatre) and Hangzhou (Zhejiang Kunqu Theatre), as well as in Taipei. Non-professional opera societies are active in many other cities in China and abroad, and opera companies occasionally tour across borders.

There are many plays that have maintained popularity even today, including The Peony Pavilion and The Peach Blossom Fan, which were originally written for the Kunqu stage. In addition, many classical Chinese novels and stories, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Journey to the West were adapted very early into dramatic pieces.
 
Hunan Kunqu Opera is a particularly interesting branch of Kunqu Opera. After Kunqu Opera was brought to Hunan from the late 16th century to the early 17th century, performers in the province combined local culture and dialect to form a unique addition to Chinese opera.

Across China, the Kunqu Opera performers are still scarce. There is an interesting nickname for all the performers, “800 strong men”. All of the “800 strong men” have undergone arduous and lonely art road in the past. Because of the depressive market of Kunqu Opera, Kunqu Opera performers have a large age gap compared with the artists in other groups (even 20 to 30 years). However, Hunan Kunqu Opera Toupe has the best performers’ structure among the seven Societies.

To protect local theatricals, Hunan Province has adopted many measures to create a good environment, including sponsoring regular performances of local operas. There is a project called "public theater," which provides opportunities to non-professional performers and fans of different local operas to perform in public. The Hunan Government also encourages traditional opera troupes to perform in rural areas across the province.

Source: based on wikipedia and Hunan news