The 200-year-old art form performed by six generations of Qiu’s family is losing fans among younger Chinese, who shun its theatrics and trademark tales of generals, concubines and emperors for more modern artistic fare.

The number of Peking opera touring troupes has dwindled as the performances have become a subsidised staple of state-run television. Even free tickets to live shows go unclaimed. Its stalwarts remain mostly elderly Chinese and foreigners. For the young, the stilted pageants have become something of a cultural embarrassment. Now the government is launching a campaign to save the once-beloved opera. Academies have renewed the call for new students.

Late last year, an ornate new centre opened in Beijing to focus nearly exclusively on the opera. The 1,100-seat Meilanfang Grand Theatre will use an aggressive advertising campaign and reduced ticket prices in an effort to attract larger crowds.

“Without state support, it will suffer the fate of classical music and opera in the West—left to the elite to keep it afloat. Back in the early 1900s, these operas were really part of the air people breathed. Now the stories are no longer a part of the lives of the audience,” says Joshua Goldstein, an associate professor of Chinese history at the University of Southern California whose specialty is Peking opera.

Some say the changes don’t necessarily have to be contemporary in nature. Kenneth Pai, a retired University of California, Santa Barbara, professor and Peking opera expert, has created an adaptation of a kunqu opera, a forerunner to the Peking opera, a sumptuous nine-hour production that he has toured throughout China and played to sold-out audiences at four state universities in California. “Even at nine hours long, over three nights, it attracted a lot of people,” he says.

Peking opera dates to the late 1790s, during China’s Qing dynasty, when audiences became transfixed by its blend of stylised action, singing, dialogue, mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing.

Although Qiu Jirong makes his living from it, the slender man with delicate features prefers modern dance, hip-hop and Michael Jackson to the stodgy rhythms of his art form.