This is why to this day, Chinese operatic professionals are still referred to as “Disciples of the Pear Garden” (梨園弟子).įrom the Song to Ming dynasties, other concepts such as rhyming schemes, specialised roles, and performing lyrics in the vernacular tongue were gradually assimilated into Chinese opera. These artists formed what could be considered China’s first opera troupe, though they mostly performed for the imperial family.

These earliest pieces of Chinese musical theatre were simple song-and-dance numbers-an example is a masked dance called The King of Lanling, featured in the 2014 hit drama series The Empress of China, starring Fan Bingbing-which were the precursors to later, more sophisticated forms of Chinese opera.ĭuring the Tang dynasty, traditionally considered the greatest age for cultivating the arts, Emperor Xuanzong founded the Pear Garden (梨園), the first such academy of music, specifically to train up musicians, dancers, and performers. Also known as xiqu (戲曲), the art of Chinese opera reached maturation in the thirteenth-century Song dynasty but was already present in an earlier form called Canjun opera (參軍戲) during the Later Zhao dynasty circa 319 to 351.

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