History of Contonese Opera

At the early stage, the artists for the opera established an association named Qionghua Guild ( 瓊花會館 ) in Foshan ( 佛山 ) for the sake of convenient communication and signing of contracts with heads of troupes. Near the Qionghua Guild, a water area was provided for anchorage of the red boats. The boats were wooden yachts, mainly painted in red. The purpose of the red boat was to transport the staff and chests for the troupe. Costumes, ornaments and other things used on the stage were placed inside the chests. In the past, the Cantonese Opera troupes arranged their performances in the delta region of the Pearl River as they could only travel by boat. They had to spend most of their time eating and sleeping on the boat. Later , when the number of theatres increased and transport improved, the red boat was then abandoned.

Picture of a Red boat - according to the information given by Mr. Chan

Our immaginary Red Boat

Floor Plan of the Red Boat-according to the information given by Mr. Lau

In the Xiangfong ( 咸豐 ) period of the Qing Dynasty, the Qionghua Guild (瓊花會館 )
was burned down by the Qing Government and the development of Cantonese Opera
was seriously interrupted. In the 15th year of Guangxu ( 光緒十五年－1889), the
「Par Wo Association ( 八和會館 )」(Union of all the troupes) was established by
the Cantonese Opera people in Guangzhau to develop Cantonese Opera.
During the Japanese invasion of China, the Cantonese Opera artists moved to
Hong Kong and Macau. As a result, Cantonese Opera was developed in
Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.