Yu opera

Yu opera (simplified Chinese: 豫剧; traditional Chinese: 豫劇; pinyin: Yùjù), or Yuju opera, formerly known as Henan bangzi (Chinese: 河南梆子; pinyin: Hénán Bāngzi), is one of China's famous national opera forms, alongside Peking opera, Shaoxing opera, Huangmei opera and Pingju. Henan province is the origin of Yu opera. Henan's one-character abbreviation is "" (yù), and thus the opera style was officially named "豫剧" (Yùjù) after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The area where Yu opera is most commonly performed is in the region surrounding the Yellow River and Huai River. According to statistical figures, Yu opera was the leading opera genre in terms of the number of performers and troupes. Outside Henan, provinces such as Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, all have professional Yu opera troupes. There have also been visits to Taiwan.