Zhang Huoding: A Popular Jingju Star with Young Chinese

This essay examines the reasons why Zhang Huoding, a jingju actress, is gaining great popularity with young audiences at a time when elderly people constitute the majority of jingju audiences. Zhang Huoding Theatre Studio is a more flexible institution in the market, using its freedom to create excellent plays appealing to younger audiences. Zhang trained in the Cheng school yet integrates other schools to form her own style, regarded as "Cheng school with Zhang style," and makes daring reforms in structure, theme, and style to classic plays of the Cheng school.