China’s Art Troupes Bring Classics to Livestreams
Dozens of China’s state-owned art troupes are bringing classic performances to livestream platforms, making traditional arts accessible to millions of viewers who might never set foot in a theater. As of July 2026, 57 state-owned troupes have established regular group livestream operations on Douyin, with cumulative livestreams exceeding 16,000 sessions reaching 320 million viewers, according to data from the China Performance Industry Association.
A Digital Bridge for Traditional Arts
Group livestreaming, or “tuanbo,” is a multi-person livestream format operated in a team-based manner. For professional art troupes, this means bringing a miniaturized stage performance to mobile phone screens, allowing audiences to experience near-theater performances without leaving home.
The movement gained significant momentum on June 25, 2026, when the Great Plays on Group Livestream plan was launched under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Market Management Department. Jointly initiated by Douyin Live and the China Performance Industry Association, the plan aims to bring classic productions—including Only This Green, Awakening Lion, and The Great River Flows East—to vertical-screen livestream viewing, as reported by Southern Metropolis Daily.
The inaugural performance featured the China Oriental Performing Arts Group, with performers including Meng Qingyang, Zhang Han, and Xie Suhao. The livestream attracted 1.894 million viewers, demonstrating the immense appetite for quality cultural content in the digital space.
From Stage to Screen: The Transformation Challenge
For many professional performers, the transition from theater to livestream has been anything but smooth. Wang Lan, a dancer at the Shaanxi Song and Dance Troupe with over a decade of experience, described her early experiences: “Unlike the offline stage with audience applause, online performance in the early days was like dancing to air.”
Cui Jiayi, a young dancer who joined the troupe three years ago, recalled her initial struggles: “At first when no one was watching, I doubted myself. The more I cared about viewer counts and comments, the more nervous I got and the more mistakes I made.”
The Shaanxi Song and Dance Troupe, founded in 1940 with 86 years of history, was among the first professional troupes to systematically explore group livestreaming, starting in late 2024. The troupe’s livestreams achieved single-session exposure exceeding 5 million views, and group livestreaming drove approximately 10 percent growth in offline ticket sales, according to China Youth Daily.
Beyond the performers themselves, entire production teams have had to adapt. Stage directors now monitor multiple camera angles, operators track dancers with roving cameras, and hosts must manage live interaction while maintaining artistic integrity. The Shaanxi troupe’s host, Feng Baiye, developed a distinctive style incorporating poetry recitation between dance segments—a creative approach that became a signature of the troupe’s livestreams.
Reimagining Classics for the Vertical Screen
One of the most significant challenges has been adapting horizontal-stage choreography for vertical phone screens. Wan Linrong, Director of the Digital and Broadcast Center at China Oriental Performing Arts Group, explained the difficulty: “During rehearsals, we’d often hear the director call out from behind the monitor, ‘Two dancers on the left are out of frame.’ We’d start over, and then he’d say, ‘The person on the right is only half visible.’ We had to keep adjusting.”
The China Oriental Performing Arts Group adapted Only This Green for vertical viewing using a multi-camera setup with moving tracks, cable cams, fixed cameras, and roaming cameras. Medium shots capture the overall choreography, while close-ups highlight finger movements and body lines. Lead dancer Meng Qingyang even demonstrated the signature “Green Waist” move during live interaction with viewers.
Other troupes have taken creative approaches to the format. The Jiangsu Opera and Dance Theatre broke an 8-minute group dance into 11 shots with 27 camera positions for its production Water Ink Jiangnan, while the Chengdu Art Theatre moved its livestream to the foot of Xiling Snow Mountain, with dancers performing against snow scenery.
Economic Impact and Industry Growth
The group livestream market has become a significant economic force. In 2025, group livestream market revenue exceeded 15 billion yuan, with daily active livestream rooms surpassing 8,000, according to the China Performance Industry Association. As of May 2026, 576 state-owned art troupes had conducted over 1.06 million livestream performances on Douyin, as reported by National Business Daily.
Professional talent livestream rooms have seen gift income growth rates seven times higher than non-talent rooms, with instrumental music rooms reaching up to 10 times. This economic potential has made livestreaming an attractive supplement to traditional theater revenue.
Meng Ding, President of the Shaanxi Song and Dance Troupe, noted the shift in audience behavior: “Audiences have shifted from buying tickets offline to paying for quality artistic content online.” The troupe implemented a part-time project system where actors participate in livestreams outside their regular 8-hour duties, with pay linked to performance.
Regulation and Quality Standards
The rapid growth of group livestreaming has also attracted regulatory attention. On July 3, 2026, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched the Qinglang Online Entertainment Group Livestream Chaos Rectification special campaign, a two-month initiative targeting six categories of problems in the entertainment group livestream industry, including improper tipping stimulation, vulgar content, and infringement of minors’ rights, as reported by Guangming Daily.
In January 2026, the China Performance Industry Association released the first industry standard for group livestreaming, providing guidance on content planning, execution, and operational management, according to Yangcheng Evening News.
A Complementary Ecosystem
Industry leaders emphasize that livestreaming complements rather than replaces traditional theater. Pan Yan, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Performance Industry Association, stated: “Group livestreaming and traditional theater performances are complementary and symbiotic, not substitutive. The prosperity of group livestreaming will not reduce audiences’ willingness to go to theaters, but will instead cultivate a broader audience base for the offline market.”
Wu Fangmei, Director of the Network Market Supervision Division at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Market Management Department, described the exploration of “classic theater works plus group livestream” as a measure that “breaks through the time-space limits of theaters and broadens the boundaries of cultural dissemination.”
Wan Linrong echoed this sentiment: “Moving the professional stage into people’s phones, letting quality cultural content reach more audiences—this is not a replacement for offline performances but a supplement and extension.”
What’s Next
As the Great Plays on Group Livestream plan continues to expand, more award-winning productions are expected to join the platform. Guangzhou Song and Dance Theatre’s Lingnan trilogy (Awakening Lion, Dragon Boat, Heroic Song), Chengdu Art Theatre’s Effort Meal, and Lanzhou Grand Theatre’s Dunhuang Dream are among the works slated to appear in future livestreams, according to Titan Media.
The digital transformation of China’s performing arts sector represents a significant experiment in cultural preservation and dissemination. As Jing Xiaoyong, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Oriental Performing Arts Group, put it: “The online stage and offline theater complement and achieve each other. Offline preserves the artistic essence, online broadens the reach of communication.”
For audiences across China and beyond, the question is no longer whether traditional arts can thrive in the digital age—but how far the stage can extend when the theater’s walls come down.