How did Hainan Qiongju come into being?

The name "Qiongju" began with the puppet show. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Fujian Zhengzi Opera and Bai Zixi both performed in Hainan Island. "Geography of Haikou" and "Ming of Fujian Guild Hall in Haikou" both record that "the vast number of ships in Fujian are moored in Baisha and Tianjin ... and Chaozhou Opera is often sung".

The so-called "Chaozhou opera" is orthographic opera and Chaozhou opera. Accordingly, local operas were based on the tunes of Zhengzi Opera and Chaozhou Opera, sung with local accents, and absorbed local folk songs and songs and dances, and developed before the middle of Qing Dynasty.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Fujian Guild Hall, Gaozhou Guild Hall, Chaozhou Guild Hall and Wuyi Guild Hall were successively built in Haikou. There are fixed stone platforms in front of these halls, and every year, they raise funds to hire a troupe from their hometown to perform in Haikou. Some troupes also set up classes to teach apprentices, and some artists settled in Hainan Island. For example, during the Guangxu period, the founder of Joan's famous dramatist Huang Kuangsheng settled in Hainan with his entourage during the Qianlong period.

These foreign troupes have promoted the development of local operas and made them a gradually mature performing art. The period from Xianfeng to Guangxu was a period of great prosperity and great change in Qiong Opera.

Cantonese opera artists flowed into Hainan Island and became close friends with Qiong opera artists. Some of them run classes to teach traditional Chinese opera, and some switch classes to act, which greatly promoted the prosperity of Qiong opera.

At this time, Huang Er, Bangzi and other accents of Cantonese opera, as well as the old and new "Jianghu" were absorbed by Qiong Opera, and based on these accents, Hainan Opera and other banqiang were created, which gradually transformed Qiong Opera from Qupai to banqiang, and the original gongs, drums, ditties and bangqiang were also abandoned.