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Among all dramatic and operatic forms in China, Peking Opera is perhaps the most popular one, and has been enjoyed by the people for more than a hundred years. The name “Peking,” however, does not really suggest the origin of this opera. Its Chinese name is p'i-huang, or erh-huang, which does indicate the origin of the opera. The word “p'i” in Chinese means “tunes,” and the character “huang” refers to one or two districts located in Hupeh province (the other name “erh-huang” means “two Huangs”) where this kind of music first originated, although the district of Huang-kang is generally believed to be the birthplace of this opera. Apparently this new kind of music soon spread to other districts of Hupeh, as well as to the adjacent provinces including Anhwei. The popularity of this new opera form encouraged and justified professional organisations, and troupes brought the opera to Peking, then the capital city of the Manchu (Ch'ing) dynasty. However, credit went to the Four Great Anhwei Troupes for their role in establishing this opera in the capital during the waning years of the Ch'ing period. The patronage of official circles, especially the royal clans in the Manchu court, helped tremendously in gaining fame and position for this new opera form. The Empress Dowager, Tz'u-hsi, so enjoyed this opera form that she ordered private theatres built in the palaces for her own enjoyment. (One of such theatres is still standing in the Summer Palace today.) As a result, the new operatic form was given a new name, ching-hsi (“Capital Opera”). And since Peking was the capital then, it was nicknamed the “Peking Opera” which subsequently has become the recognised name for it.

In the opinion of the Communists, the significance of the Literary Renaissance in modern China beginning with the May Fourth movement of 1919, lies not in that it introduced the colloquial language as the new medium for literature, but in that it ushered into China a new literature which replaced the “old-fashioned, out-of-date literature of the bourgeois class.” But the new literature which the Communists had hoped for did not fully develop until the political revolution led by the Communists succeeded, and a new régime was established in 1949. To implement the literary revolution and to introduce the people's new literature, the Communist régime called the first conference of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in July, 1949 at which the government spokesmen expounded the concepts and scope of this new literature and outlined a programme for “literary workers” to follow. Since these expositions were indeed the expressions of the policies of the new régime on literary reform and are therefore pertinent to the discussion in this paper, they must be cited here as a point of reference.