China has been celebrating Cultural and Natural Heritage Day on the second Saturday of June since 2016, and June 10 marks the Day this year.
Currently, five items of UNESCO intangible cultural heritages are from Guangdong or include a branch from the province. The Cultural Heritage in Focus series will shed light on these items, and this chapter is about Cantonese opera.
Cantonese opera was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009. It combines Mandarin operatic traditions and Cantonese dialect, featuring string and percussion instruments, elaborate costumes, face painting, and martial arts. It has developed a rich repertoire of stories, ranging from historical epics to more realistic descriptions of daily life.
(Photo provided to GDToday)
Mainly popular in the Cantonese-speaking provinces and regions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macao, this genre of opera provides a cultural bond among Cantonese speakers both at home and abroad.
Author| Holly
Poster| Mia
Editor| Wing, Olivia, Steven, Monica, James
