Big String Opera According to the historical documents and records, Huaxian (a county in China) Big String Opera was a multiple vocal performances opera genre. It started from the palace of the Tang Dynasty, named “Juggling Team.” When a minister Yaojin Cheng celebrated his 100 years old birthday, the emperor Tang Gaozong gave him this team as a gift. Later when Cheng’s family was assigned to be the officer of Shandong Province, they brought this team to Shandong and it developed along the Yellow River. At the very beginning, Big String Opera focused on the Tang Dynasty “Yuefu” songs. The instruments included bamboo flute, sheng, sanxian, the performance form was very simple. In the Song Dynasty, the performing style became more epic and active. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the band started using metal percussive instruments and changed the bamboo flute to tin flute. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Big String Opera has become a huge scale opera genre. The earliest record about Big String Opera could be traced back to 1498 in the Ming Dynasty and it was selected as National Intangible Cultural Heritage by China State Council in 2006 Flower Drum Opera With more than 200 years of history, Guangshan (a county in China) Flower Drum Opera has priceless value for the Chinese opera history. Flower Drum opera started with local folk song and dance, it was a combination of Banqiang genre and Qupai genre. The history of Guangshan Flower Drum opera could be traced back to the Qing Dynasty. There are five stages of the development of Guangshan Flower Drum opera; it became a well-developed opera by time. The region of the Guangshan Flower Drum opera located in the southern Henan Province, northern Hubei Province, and western Anhui Province, the furthest area was reached around Jiangxi Province in the south of China. Guangshan Flower Drum Opera was composed of vocal performance and percussion. The vocal performance style was various, based on local folk characters; percussion style was very unique, full of expressions. Guangshan Flower Drum Opera usually has a small group of performers; each actor could perform multiple roles. In 2014, Guangshan Flower Drum Opera was selected as National Intangible Cultural Heritage by China State Council.   Siping Tone Opera Siping tone is a Chinese Opera heritage, transformed from a traditional Chinese entertainment “Huagu (Flower and Drum)”. Huagu performer would carry the flower and drum with them during the performance, only wear light decoration for the roles. In 1930, huagu performer Yuzhen Zou created a new style of performance, separated the drum and other instruments from the performers. The performers would only imitate the characters with designed costume, and this is the beginning of huagu transformed from basic entertainment to opera. In 1931, performers Yucheng Yan, Ruohai Xu went to Shangqiu to perform. To avoid the government’s prohibition of huagu, they made up a nickname for their performance as “GuangGuang Opera.” This name was denied by an enthusiast of huagu, Mr.Tian. Later after a discussion with the performers, they decided to call the reformed huagu“Siping Tone Daoqing Opera Taikang was the name of a county in Henan Province, China. Daoqing was developed from religious music of Taoism. Around 1872, in the eastern region of Henan Province, Daoqing performers absorbed different elements from other music genres and established Taoist genre. After being improved by generations and generations, Taikang Daoqing Opera has become a very popular opera style in nationwide. In 2006, Taikang Daoqing Opera was selected as National Intangible Cultural Heritage by China State Council. Yu Opera Yu Opera also called Henan Bangzi(Wooden Clapper Opera), Ou Opera and Henan High Tune, is one of the most popular local operas all over the country. It is the first Chinese Opera performed in Broadway theater (Studio 54) ( New York) and Dolby Theater ( Hollywood) Its earliest written record can be traced back more than 200 years. At the end of theQing Dynasty(1644-1911), the opera became widespread across Henan Province. After the establishment of thePeople's Republic of China, it experienced rapid growth -- not only in the villages and cities of Henan Province but also throughout the country. Until the mid-1980s, Yu Opera was the leading local opera genre in terms of the number of performers, troupes and audiences among the other 300 local Chinese operas Yu Opera is mostly dominated by singing opera arias without make-up and acting. It is noted for its demanding melodies, strong rhythms and intensive use of spoken language. Yu Opera is popular to the broad masses for it is full of local features and rich flavor of life. Unsophisticated, plus exquisite and vivid performances, it becomes a major local opera in Henan Province and enjoys nationwide popularity. There are over 600 pieces in the repertoire of Yu Opera. Because of its beautiful tunes, simple and unsophisticated style, strong local flavor, exquisite and vivid performances, and rich flavor of life, Yu Opera is well received by audiences. There are three fixed systematic roles of the opera, four types of sheng, four types of dan, and four styles of painted faces. There are several dozen arias with about 1,000 traditional plays.