Shanghai opera

Huju (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Hùjù), or Shanghai opera, is composed of a variety of Chinese operas from Shanghai. They are typically sung in Shanghainese.

Huju is particularly popular in Baihe, the oldest town in the Qingpu District of Shanghai. There are eight to ten huju ensembles in the Baihe, and many local residents hire these ensembles to perform for weddings and funerals.

Huju is accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments, including dizi (transverse bamboo flute), erhu (two-stringed fiddle), pipa (pear-shaped lute), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), and percussion. The instrumentation and style are closely related to the instrumental genre of Jiangnan sizhu.

The well-known Chinese composition "Purple Bamboo Melody" (; 紫竹調) has been adapted and used for huju.

The Shanghai opera is rooted in the folksongs of the Huangpu River area. According to historical records from 1796, there was more than 200 years of cultural development from the original Huaguxi operas before the emergence of contemporary Shanghai opera.

During the rule of the Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty, Huaguxi was very popular in Shanghai. Influenced by Huaguxi and other forms of drama during the reign of the Guangxu emperor of Qing dynasty, these folksongs developed into (滩簧). In order to distinguish them from Sutan and Nibo , Shanghainese people called them "bentan" (本滩) or "shentan" (申滩). Performance of shentan began in Shanghai around the 1900s.

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