Itinerant Actors and Red Boats in the Pearl River Delta

This chapter reconstructs the early history of Cantonese opera, from the theater activities in Ming-Qing Guangdong to opera troupes from various parts of China where major theatrical genres had taken shape. The ensuing process of domestication of such extra-provincial theatrical materials, mingled with local musical sources, gradually nurtured a regional style of theater that has been known for its eclectic quality ever since. By the last third of the nineteenth century, local opera had flourished as an itinerant operation with acting troupes performing on stage in temple courtyards and in makeshift structures at rural market fairs across the estuaries of the Pearl River Delta. This was the legendary “era of the red boat,” named after the flat-bottomed wooden crafts used as means of conveyance and as accommodations by the actors.