Mostly Young Women with Quite Traditional Tastes: Empirical Evidence for National Contemporary Audiences of Xiqu

Whether in China or outside of it, xiqu (Chinese opera) observers and practitioners often make the claim that xiqu audiences are elderly and vanishing, and that there is no substantial national market for xiqu productions in present-day China. For these reasons, both innovation and reform are thought to be required to rejuvenate audiences. Based on audience questionnaires from a 2013 national tour of the Fujian Province Liyuan Experimental Theatre (FPLET), the data provided in this essay suggest that a considerable national xiqu audience market exists in major cities, and it is composed largely of young women. Furthermore, it finds that there is no correlation between age and desire for stage reform, and that audiences generally exhibit actor-centered viewing habits. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that the influential conjectures that innovation attracts youthful audiences do not, in this case, hold.