Lu Opera, one of China’s eight major opera genres and one of Shandong’soperas, originated from the Yellow River Delta in northern Shandong in 1900. Yantai is particularly famous for the opera. Lu Opera is deeply loved because of its simple and vivid language, melodious aria, and rich and colorful music.

There are several legends about Lu Opera. The first play The Jarvey Wangxiao was called “donkey-opera acting” or directly called “donkey opera”, because of a dulcimer and paper donkey as props. The character lǘ (donkey) has the same partial tone with “Lǚ”, so the play is gradually called “Lu Opera”. Generally, actors referred to the opera as “make-up dulcimer”, while the public referred to it as “make-up dulcimer” or “dulcimer opera”.

In 1952, after a series of reforms, the Shandong Lu Opera Troupe was officially established. It was built on the defunct Shandong Provincial Opera Troupe. The Jinan Municipal Troupe of Shandong Tune Instruments also officially changed its name into the Jinan Lu Opera Troupe. From then on, Lu Opera became the official name of the art form.

There are 20 professional Lu Opera troupes and theatres in Shandong, five of which are in Yantai. Yantai Lu Opera Theatre, the first professional Lu Opera troupe in Yantai, was established in 1956. In its early days, it performed original plays, such as Zheng Yingying, in Beidaihe for Party and State leaders, including Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De and Deng Xiaoping. It also conducted multiple tours on behalf of the Shandong government to Yunnan, Guizhou and Jiangxi.

Yantai Lu Opera is known as “Haipai” Opera for its localized features, and is referred to as “Bengbengxi” by people in the Jiaodong Peninsula for its indigenous folk flavor. In recent years, Yantai Lu Opera has made many achievements. For instance, the play Yantai Mountain won the Excellence Play Award at the 10th Shandong “Fine Cultural and Art Work Project” under the Spiritual Civilization Campaign in 2012. The Yantai Lu Opera Theatre toured to South Korea, promoting Lu Opera as part of Jiaodong culture to the world.