In rural China there are opera troupes who travel from village to village to give performances. While the troupe is in the vicinity, villagers will use the occasion to gather together to renew their friendship. I had encountered several such performances while I was visiting the countryside, some in daytime and some in the evening after dark. The parts I saw were traditional operas, involving stylish singing and acting. The picture on the right shows an actress dressed in the traditional opera costume performing on a stage sparsely decorated with props.

Not much a fan of Chinese operas and knowing very little about them, I didn't find these performances very entertaining. Nowadays, with television reaching nearly every rural household, presenting programs with a great deal more variety, I feel that the entertainment value of the traveling opera troupes will slowly diminish with time. On the other hand, it can serve a social function. The arrival of an opera troupe usually creates such a fanfare that it attracts the attention of people from several nearby villages. They might as well use the occasion to meet each other. Here we see young people dressed very colorfully for this event. If they didn't bring their chairs, they would have to watch the performance standing, so as not to dirty their clothes.

I was surprised to see no vendors selling food or souvenir on the ground. Villagers are very frugal, and they probably don't waste money buying non-essential items aimlessly. These pictures were taken at Lishi, Shanxi in 1997. See also another article on villages.

Other scenes of such gatherings are shown below.