Second Act: How a 500-Year-Old Chinese Opera Returned to Modern Life

Zhao Jinyu still remembers the time she gave away tickets to her Kunqu opera performance — and couldn’t find anyone who wanted them. “Too elegant,” her friends said. “Makes me sleepy.” That was 2005, just a few years after Kunqu opera — a 500-year-old form of Chinese opera known for its refined movement and lyrical verse — was added to UNESCO’s inaugural list of “Masterpieces of the Oral and