It is safe to say that most people know more about Huangmei Opera than they do about Huangmei County in central China's Hubei Province, the birthplace of the popular Chinese folk genre.

This is not the least bit surprising, as Huangmei Opera troupes in east China's Anhui Province have for decades been noted for their superb performances, which has resulted in a deeply rooted misunderstanding among audiences.

Many folk opera lovers, both within China and outside, have long assumed that not only did Huangmei Opera originate in Anhui Province, but also that Huangmei County is part of Anhui.

This misconception has long bothered Zhang Zhixiong, director of the Culture Bureau of Huangmei County. Zhang was in Beijing yesterday to announce the debut of two new Huangmei operas -- Please Take Me as Your Bride and Cashing in -- at the Grand Chang'an Theatre tonight and tomorrow evening.

What makes these two shows unique -- as compared with Huangmei operas from other parts of China -- is that the two plays present the "original taste and flavour" of Huangmei Opera from the art's birthplace, Zhang said.

"In a story written for China Cultural News four years ago, we discussed the development of Huangmei Opera in Huangmei County, in Hubei Province," Zhang said. "To say the very least, we were dismayed when we read the headline the editor had put on our story: 'Huangmei Opera from Huangmei County in Anhui Province'."

Last year, the same thing occurred again in the city of Weifang, in East China's Shandong Province, when a local daily carried a frontpage report that said that Huangmei is a county in Anhui Province, Zhang said.

"We are glad to see Huangmei Opera flourishing in neighbouring Anhui Province," Zhang said. "But Huangmei County is in Hubei Province, and is the indisputable birthplace of the folk opera named after it."

The opera's beginning can be dated back to tea-picking ballads -- the folk songs people in Huangmei County sang when picking tea -- some 200 years ago, Zhang said.

Near the end of the 19th century, frequent floods and famines forced many people from Huangmei County to make a living by performing the opera in neighbouring provinces, including Anhui.

That was when Huangmei Opera really began to thrive.

Thanks to the arduous work of local artists, including the filming of several traditional Huangmei Operas in the 1950s, Anhui Huangmei Opera is now very well known throughout China and outside the country.

"But Huangmei Opera still thrives in its birthplace," Zhang said.

In fact, the opera is so popular in Huangmei County that its tunes are used by local mothers to lull their babies to sleep, and have become an inseparable part of the daily life of adults in the county, Zhang said.

In 1995, the Ministry of Culture christened Huangmei the "Birthplace of the Art of Huangmei Opera." But like other opera genres in China, Huangmei Opera needs to reform to cater to the tastes of today's audiences, Zhang said.

Compared with other traditional operas, such as Peking Opera, Huangmei Opera has a very short history, which makes it easier for the form to adapt to changing times and to enrich itself, he said.

"But the changes in melodies, sounds, movements, costumes and sets must not be so drastic that the opera loses its original distinctive form," he said.

A key way to sustain the popularity of Huangmei Opera is to find stories that best reflect everyday life -- that arouse audiences' passion and compassion, he said.

The two operas to be performed by the Huangmei Opera Troupe in Beijing tell stories precisely of this sort, he said.

(China Daily July 30, 2004)