“Peking Opera Houses” and “Jiqing Opera Exchange” in the Modern Stage Market in China

In the sixth year of the Tongzhi (1867), “Peking Opera Houses” and the “Jiqing Opera Exchange” emerged in Shanghai and Guangdong separately, changing the course of Chinese opera history and marking the emergence of a modern stage market in China. As transaction intermediaries of the market, they had an irreplaceable role and meaning in the development of the Peking Opera and the Cantonese Opera. This study argues that they profoundly reflect the influence of the capitalist market economy on Chinese traditional culture in the early age of globalisation and have an important historical position in the history of the modern stage market in China.