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Xiamen Gezai Opera
Gezai Opera is a South Fujian dialect opera that was formed on the basis of Minnan Gezai, and absorbed the essence of Liyuan Opera, Beiguan Opera, Gaojia Opera, Beijing Opera, and Min Opera etc. It came into being on Taiwan Island in 20th century and is the only one of over 360 operas of China to come into existence in Taiwan. With hundreds of years of development, "Seven-Syllable Rhyming" was finally created. The creation of "Seven-Syllable Rhyming" symbolized the birth of Gezai Opera, which was later quickly spread to Xiamen and then all over South Fujian and S.E. Asia.
The musical instruments are mainly four-stringed Kezai String, the Broad-String, Taiwan flute, Yu-kin etc. The performance, roles, costumes, theatrical masks and percussion are basically taken from Beijing Opera. Plays of Gezai Opera include The Butterfly Lovers, A Woman Called Chen Sanwu etc.
Mooncake Game During Mid-autumn Festival
Besides enjoying the bright silver moon and eating moon cakes that are popular throughout the country, there is a mooncake game during mid-autumn festival in Xiamen Region.
There are 63 moon cakes for each set, which implies that 7 times 9 is 63, for three and nine are lucky numbers in the civil society of China. For each set, there are one piece of Zhuang Yuan (Number One Scholar) mooncake with a diameter of 5 inches, two pieces of Duitang (this and all following names are of official titles of the feudal governments of ancient China, just like Number One Scholar) with a diameter of around 4 inches, three pieces of Sanhong with a diameter of two to three inches, eight pieces of Sijin with a diameter of a bit more than one inch, sixteen pieces of Erju with a diameter of nearly one inch, and thirty two pieces of Yixiu with a diameter of about half inch.
They are respectively on behalf of the Number One Scholar of polite letters and that of Martial Arts, Bang Yan (the second name at the highest imperial exam), Tan Hua (the third named on the finals), Jin Shi (a name for who passed the highest imperial exam), Ju Ren (the title for that passed the imperial exam at the provincial level), and Xiu CAI (the title for who passed the imperial exam at the county level). With only six dice and one bowl, the means of mooncake games are very simple. Everybody takes turns to throw dice to see which kind of cakes they can get. He who throws six same dice will bag every moon cake on the table.
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