Qinqiang is the oldest of China's regional opera forms and the one that belongs to Shaanxi. It is not subtle: the singing is loud and high, the percussion is heavy, the wooden clappers drive the rhythm and the audience shouts approval mid-performance. Even without understanding a word, the energy is clear within a couple of minutes.
Where to see Qinqiang
Xi'an has proper opera houses as well as tourist-oriented shows. The most established is the Yishe Society theatre, founded in 1912 and still staging full-length Qinqiang productions with surtitles in some performances. Tickets are cheap by international standards, often under 100 yuan, and the audience is mostly local. Tourist shows staged in hotel ballrooms are easier to follow because they use excerpts, costumes and explanation, but they are a different experience from a real performance.
Shadow puppetry
Shaanxi shadow puppetry uses flat leather figures cut and painted by hand, held against a backlit screen and worked by rods. A short show - usually twenty to thirty minutes - is performed in several small courtyard theatres in the old city, including the historic Gao family courtyard in the Muslim Quarter. The stories are abbreviated versions of folk tales and opera plots, and the puppeteers often come out afterwards to show how the figures are manipulated.
What to watch for
In Qinqiang, look at the face painting and the headdress - the colour and pattern of the mask tells you who the character is. In shadow puppetry, watch the hands and the feet: a good puppeteer can make a figure walk, sit, fight and pick up an object. Sit close to the screen if you can; it is a small-scale art and the detail is the point.
Practical notes
Shows are usually in the evening and last from thirty minutes to two hours. Booking ahead is advisable in high season and unnecessary in winter. Photography is normally allowed without flash. Neither form is in English, but both rely on gesture, music and colour, and a printed plot summary from the venue is usually enough to follow the story.
