What's the difference between China traditional opera and drama?

China and Greece are both ancient civilizations, and both have drama inheritance, but we often can't tell the difference between them.

Drama is a comprehensive performing art, in which actors present real experiences or imaginary events to the audience in a specific place (usually a stage). Actors usually communicate with the audience through action, dialogue, singing and stage. Different art forms, including painting and lighting, will be used to enhance this experience. The word theater is used to refer to both drama and theater.

Traditional opera refers to the traditional operas in China, including Kunqu Opera, Peking Opera and many other local operas. Zeng Yongyi, a scholar, defined Chinese opera as "a comprehensive literature and art with touching stories, poetry as the essence, closely combining music, dance and acrobatics, dressing up and using the first-person narrator through literary narration and singing, and performing in a small theater."

When we watch ancient Greek drama and China drama, we will find that they have obvious differences in expression, emotional communication and dialogue singing, and they also bring us great emotional differences. Ancient Greek drama is an open-air theater built on a mountain, which can accommodate thousands or even 20,000 or 20,000 spectators, while China drama is mostly in indoor theater, with little space.

The difference between China's opera and ancient Greek drama is obvious, and there are many reasons for this difference. No matter when we study, appreciate, create or perform traditional Chinese opera or drama, we need to correctly understand these differences so as not to confuse the two forcibly. China's traditional operas and dramas are the epitome of eastern and western civilizations.

The ancient Greek tragedy is the ultimate tragedy of mankind's resistance to fate. China's drama is a bitter tragedy between people. In fact, people in China are more realistic and secular, and they are less interested in the ultimate problem. Only when there are problems in secular life will they resort to emotion. For civilization, ancient Greek tragedies have a stronger philosophical meaning, while for the present world, China operas have a stronger sense of existence. This is why China's ancient civilization has continued, even if the sword and fire are robbed, it has not been cut off.