More than 10 Yueju Opera experts give performances at the opening ceremony of the Fifth Chinese Yueju Opera Festival in Shaoxing, Zhejiang on July 31. 

The Fifth Chinese Yueju Opera Festival opened in Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang, last Sunday.

With the tagline "Yueju Opera Festival, People's Festival", the festival will run for 21 days from July 31 to Aug 20. During the festival, 45 plays, including 20 traditional ones and 15 new ones, will be performed, showing the achievements and development of Yueju Opera in the four years since 2018 when the last festival was held.

To preserve Chinese Yueju Opera, 13 famous Yueju Opera experts released the "Shaoxing Initiative for Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Chinese Yueju Opera" at the opening ceremony.

Chinese Yueju Opera Festival is a national art festival held in Zhejiang every four years since 2006. It aims to preserve the culture of Yueju Opera and promote the development and prosperity of Yueju Opera.

Yueju Opera is not only a representative of Zhejiang opera, but also one of the five major opera genres in China. It was included on the first list of national intangible cultural heritage items.