Jinhua – the historical and cultural city located in East China's Zhejiang province – has had two of its administrative areas conferred with the appellation "Hometowns of Zhejiang Traditional Opera", according an announcement by the provincial department of culture and tourism.
Pujiang county and Tangxian town in Yongkang county-level city, both administered by Jinhua, were given the honors. They have preserved, respectively, traditional Wuju Opera and Xinggan Opera.
A Wuju Opera is performed in front of a large audience in Pujiang county, in Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: jhfabu]
Wuju Opera is named after Wuzhou, an ancient name for Jinhua. It is an ancient traditional opera genre, whose cultural influence extends throughout Zhejiang and most parts of Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. It is understood to have free-flowing tunes and variegated lyrics and is mainly used for weddings, funerals and in worship.
A Xinggan Opera is staged in Tangxian town, Yongkang city, in Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: jhfabu]
Xinggan Opera, although an ancient local opera unique to Yongkang, has a large fan base in Dongyang, Yiwu, Pan'an, Wuyi and in other places.
A cultural station has been established in Yongkang to help protect the art. It was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Zhejiang in 2008 and was selected in the third national intangible cultural heritage list in 2011.
