The first-ever Chinese film, Dingjun Shan in 1905, was an adaptation of a Peking Opera show depicting a battle from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and for a long time afterwards, the narrative and acting codes of Peking Opera would have a noticeable influence on Chinese cinema. Eventually, saner heads prevailed and Peking Opera made a comeback.

Traditional Chinese music and art was seen as an impediment to Communist progress, a link to the corrupt past, and so was ruthlessly suppressed. During the Cultural Revolution, they were further branded as holdouts of the past and purged or sent into reeducation camps.

Ironically, modern actors of Peking Opera are held in much higher esteem than they ever had been in any period of history, as Peking Opera is being preserved as a living cultural artifact in both mainland China and Taiwan: in the past, any job that wasn't a government post or involved with teaching was looked down upon, and actors in troupes such as those who performed in Peking Operas had even worse reputations, barely above that of prostitutes-after all, they 'lie' for a living.

China peking opera theater