Shanxi opera, or Jin opera, is the most prominent form of

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

form in the province of

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

. Jin opera is one of the four great operatic traditions of Shanxi, along with

Pu opera Pu opera, also known as Puzhou clapper opera, is a variety of Chinese opera from southern Shanxi, China. It is closely related to ''qinqiang Qinqiang (秦腔, pinyin: Qín qiāng, literally "Qin's tune") is a genre of folk Chinese opera origin ...

, Beilu clapper opera 北路梆子, and Shangdang clapper opera 上党梆子. Shanxi opera developed in central Shanxi during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, by incorporating local rice-planting song styles into

Puju Pu opera, also known as Puzhou clapper opera, is a variety of Chinese opera from southern Shanxi, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a pop ...

, a related genre from southern Shanxi. In the early 20th century, the popularity of Shanxi opera spread into other provinces like

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ning ...

, Gansu, and

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for ...

, thanks to the dominance of

Shanxi merchants Shanxi merchants, also known as Jin merchants (), were the group of merchants from Shanxi province, China. ''Jin'' is an abbreviated name of Shanxi. Even though the history of noticeable Shanxi merchants can be dated back to as early as the Spring ...

in Chinese trade. Male roles are usually played by women.

References

{{Chinese opera Chinese opera Culture in Shanxi