Members of Cathay Camera Club, visited four open-air Chiu Chow opera performances in Hong Kong during last month’s Hungry Ghost festival and snapped these backstage images.
Chaozhou opera – or Chiuchow opera, as it is more commonly known in Hong Kong – is one of the many variants of Chinese Opera.
It is performed in the Chiuchow dialect and is one of the principal genres of Chinese opera, popular in the regions of Eastern Guangdong and Southern Fujian.
Around 1.2 million people originating from Chiu Chow (Chaozhou) in China’s Guangdong province live in Hong Kong, according to the government.
The Hungry Ghost festival, or Yulan Festival, offers sacrifices to ancestors as well as wandering ghosts to use n the afterlife.
During the festival, the city’s Chiuchow community puts on live opera shows, often on temporary bamboo stages, in order to entertain the spirits.
