Cantonese opera is a kind of drama formed by Guangdong artists absorbing the sounds of operas from other provinces into Cantonese opera troupes, singing in other languages, and blending them into local ballads and minor tunes. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there were children of rural customs who lived by playing in all parts of central Guangdong. From Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, Yiyang Opera and Kunqu Opera appeared. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, there were "local tyrants" in Guangzhou who sang "Guangqiang" when acting. During the Qianlong period, local artists formed Qionghua Guild Hall, a peer organization, in Daji, Foshan Town. During the period from Qianlong to Daoguang-year, hundreds of other provinces' Waijiang Opera Troupes entered Guangdong, and the Guangdong Waijiang Liyuan Guild Hall was established in Guangzhou. The local class absorbed the artistic nourishment of Waijiang class in voice and performance, and gradually formed a performance style mainly singing Bangzi. In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), Li, a local class artist, took the children of Liyuan as the backbone and organized the Red Scarf Army to fight against the Qing Dynasty. The Qing government banned local classes from performing, so artists had to switch to Waijiang classes or pretend to be Peking Opera. In the early years of Tongzhi, the local class rose again. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), the Bahe Guild Hall was established in Guangzhou. At this time, local classes also absorbed the Er Quan tune, and could give priority to the Bangzi and Er Quan tunes, and also perform Eighteen Books of Jianghu, Eighteen Books of New Jianghu and Eighteen Books of Big ostentation and extravagance in major (localized Yiyang tune and Kunqu tune). The performing roles are divided into ten categories: Wushu, Zheng Sheng, Xiao Sheng, Xiaowu, Zongsheng, Gongjiao, Zheng Dan, Hua Dan and Jingchou. Wushu is a southern Wushu evolved from Shaolin Wushu. When the original "Six Kingdoms Seal" was performed, there were more than 100 people, colorful and mixed with local sounds, which was quite different from other operas. The early Cantonese Opera Troupe shuttled through the ports along the inland river of the Pearl River on a specially rented "red boat", so it was also called the "red boat disciple" of Cantonese opera artists. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, theaters were built in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao and other places one after another. The local class newly called Cantonese Opera gradually changed from a rural soil stage to an urban theater performance, and then the provincial and Hong Kong large classes moved between large and medium-sized cities. In order to meet the needs of urban audiences and theater performances, there have been masters who write plays as their profession, and most of their new plays are gorgeous and ingenious. However, Xia Sifu Class, which performed in western Guangdong, is still good at performing the original works featuring Wu Sheng and Xiao Wu, maintaining a rough and simple artistic feature. During the Guangxu period, state political classes who left their hometown and Hong Kong one after another performed in some overseas countries.

Before and after the Revolution of 1911 (19 1 1), influenced by the trend of democratic revolution, some Cantonese opera artists participated in the League activities advocated by Sun Yat-sen. Some people in the society organize volunteer classes to promote the idea of democratic revolution through activities to improve Cantonese opera. After that, influenced by the improvement of Cantonese opera and the need to compete with emerging innovative films, various factors of Cantonese opera comprehensive art have undergone major changes. The content of the play covers ancient and modern Chinese and foreign themes, with thousands of cutting-edge screenwriters. Xiao Sheng and Xiao Wu changed from singing falsetto to singing the true voice. Bangzi, Huang Er, Yiyang, Kunqu Opera and other vocal cavities are very different from the original sound. Bangzi and Huang Er created new plates and sentence patterns, and applied popular folk songs such as Muyu, Nanyin, Yuefu and Banshu to vocal music. Through the combination of tuning and plate changes, they comprehensively used a variety of voices, which were also in the original national accompaniment instruments. The performing arts absorbed Peking Opera works and northern martial arts, and drew lessons from the performance methods of film and television dramas that pay attention to reality and are close to life, and formed a performance system with Wu Sheng, Wen Wusheng, Xiao Sheng, Andrew Hua Dan, Hua Dan and Ugly Students as the pillars, resulting in singing styles of life, Dan and Ugly. In 1930s and 1940s, the stage of Cantonese opera was full of stars, and five schools emerged, namely Xue Juexian, Ma Shiceng, Bai Jurong, Liao Xiahuai and Guangxi, which dominated the reform direction of Cantonese opera and created many excellent tracks. Stage scenery has changed from one table and two chairs to plane, three-dimensional and even institutional scenery, and lighting has developed from water lamps and headlights to electric lamps and colored rotating lamps.

There are different opinions about the emergence and formation of Cantonese Opera. However, it is generally believed that Cantonese opera began to sprout in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and was bred in the local class. It is generally believed that the origin of local classes is quoted from Mai's History of Cantonese Opera. According to the History of Guangdong Drama, "Yongzheng succeeded to the throne ... when the famous Beijing actress Zhang held out her hand ... she fled to Guangdong and lived in Dajiwei, Foshan Town ... and gave the children of Red Boat a Peking Opera Kunqu opera, which changed the organization and expanded the scale. Qionghua Guild Hall, as the origin of recording local classes of Cantonese Opera, actually greatly shortened the history of local classes of Cantonese Opera. Qionghua Guild Hall was not established during Yongzheng period. According to historical records, as early as Jiajing to Wanli in Ming Dynasty, the local class had established Qionghua Guild Hall as an industry organization in Foshan and Guangzhou. After continuous development, Yiyang and Kunqu Opera are combined with popular local folk tunes such as Nanyin, Dragon Boat, Muyu, Yue Opera, Salty Water Songs and Guangdong Instrumental Music. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, it gradually evolved into a combination of North and South, Chinese and foreign vocal music, singing in vernacular, thus forming a local opera with distinctive Lingnan characteristics-Cantonese opera. The unique feature of Cantonese opera, which is different from other provinces, is that it not only belongs to the category of China's freehand drama, but also has a light, smooth, novel and changeable personality and enjoys the reputation of "Southern Red Bean".

Cantonese opera originated from Southern Opera, also known as "Grand Drama" or "Guangdong Grand Drama", and originated in Foshan. As early as the Han Dynasty, the performing arts in Foshan were very popular. Since Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, Cantonese opera appeared in Guangdong. Cantonese opera is a performing art that integrates singing, reading, playing, musicians' music, stage costumes and abstract forms. It is a major drama in southern China, which combines Haiyan Opera, Yiyang Opera, Kunshan Opera and Bangzi Opera which have flowed into Guangdong since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and absorbs the folk music of the Pearl River Delta. 19 In the 1940s, Cantonese opera spread from Hong Kong to Singapore and Malaysia in Southeast Asia. Since then, Xingma's Cantonese opera has flourished, so Singapore is called "the second hometown of Cantonese opera". Cantonese opera goes abroad, and westerners call it Cantonese opera. Although the name of Cantonese opera only appeared in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, its origin can be traced back to the middle of Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago. In the 30 years before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Cantonese opera was basically divided into two factions: the provincial and port classes and the mountain-crossing classes (or the rural classes).

In the Ming Dynasty, Yiyang Opera, a southern drama, became popular in Guangdong, and Kunban Opera, Huizhou Opera and Jiangxi and Hunan Opera Troupe often performed in Guangdong. Influenced by foreign countries, Cantonese also learned to act, and then formed a troupe with local people as the main body, and transitioned to a troupe with local people as the whole. In order to distinguish the two, the former is called "Waijiang class" and the latter is called "local class". When clearing Daoguang, Mr. Yang thought: "Guangdong music department is divided into two categories: Waijiang class and local class." "Generally, foreign classes are close to Huizhou classes, and local classes are close to Western classes. The situation is very different. " Nevertheless, in the early days of the establishment of the local class (Ming Dynasty), the difference between the local class and the Waijiang class mainly meant that the class was composed of local people, not the difference of voice. In a narrow sense, it refers to a professional troupe composed of local artists; Broadly speaking, it can also include temporary performance groups composed of farmers and craftsmen in seasonal performance activities.

When did Cantonese (locals) begin to participate in drama performances? Mr. Guo Bingzhen thinks that it was first written by Gui Youguang in the Ming Dynasty, which recorded an imperial edict given to the Wei school in the 16th year of the Ming Dynasty, including the content that "the sage should be worshipped as a servant, and the son should not be sent in vain", "You should not make up and sing obscene songs, play emperors of past dynasties, slander ancient and modern times, and offenders will be prosecuted". Mr. Guo Bingzhen believes that this is the earliest record of drama performance in Guangdong, and that it can be disproved by telling the people that there were local people participating in drama performance in Zhengde period of Ming Dynasty, that is, there were drama performances in Guangdong more than 400 years ago. This is undoubtedly an advanced discovery, but a more advanced disproof is found in the "Taiyuan Huo Family Tree" in Shiwan, Foshan. In other words, during the two emperors, Zheng De and Chenghua, Foshan natives participated in the drama performances. The genealogy has the following records: "One year scenery, Lantern Festival, decoration on March 3, dragon boat on May 5, acting on July 7, secular, difficult to ban leather." ..... On March 3rd, decorations, nosy people, people who rent clothes and borrow jewelry, or get wet in the rain or cause damage, are useless, and compensation is useless. ..... July 7th action, well-bred children should not know. Although you learn to sing with others, you are a junior, but you have lost your mind ... future generations will follow my instructions. " This passage of Huo Qizu Weng was written in the seventeenth year of Chenghua in Ming Dynasty (namely, AD 148 1 year), which should be forty years earlier than the sixteenth year (in the article On Ancient and Modern Cantonese Opera, it was mistakenly called AD 15 12 years, but it should actually be AD/kloc- Moreover, from the genealogical analysis, it can be said that as early as AD 148 1 year, that is, more than 500 years ago, Foshan people had already participated in drama performances very early.

Li, the "son of the king", is the only person in the history of world drama who became the leader of peasant uprising by an artist. Kuang Xinhua, the first head of the "Eight Harmony Hall" of Cantonese Opera, is not only a representative of "Tongzhi Zhongxing", but also a famous civil and military veteran. He has performed such famous repertoires as Shepherd in Su Wu, Taibai He Fan and Chen Qing in Li Mi.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were many famous actresses, such as Li Ju, Li Xiang Jr., Xiao Cong, Zhou Lingli and Li Xuefang, which were well-known at home and abroad. Maxima is known as "King of Hua Dan", while Li Xuefang is known as "Southern Snow and Northern Plum" by Kang Youwei, and is mentioned with Mei Lanfang.

In the 1930s, in the history of Cantonese opera, it was called the era of "learning from horses for heroes". Xue Juexian, who is close to the style of Peking Opera and has comprehensive performance skills, has been dubbed "the all-round old man". However, Ma Shi won the Clown Award for his outstanding role as a minor and his representative works including Hu Bugui and other four tragedies. He exposed the ugliness of feudal rich capitalists in a group drama featuring "lonely and cold species" (miser), which was quite Moliere's style. Not only in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia, but also in the United States for many years.

Cantonese opera is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan Province, Hongkong and Macau. Cantonese opera is performed in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America and other areas where overseas Chinese in Guangdong live in concentrated communities.