The Last Lineage Opera in Zhouguan Village (2017)

In the summer of 2006, I went to Zhouguan, a Tunpu village in a multi-ethnic area of southwest China. Renowned for its performances of the Dixi exorcism operas, the village elders believe that they are descendants of ethnic Han military colonists in the early Ming Dynasty. When local businessmen and government officials began to take control of the staging of these plays, the elders told me that "authentic" performances were no longer possible.