Location info and some photos withheld. As of my last visit, this mural site is vulnerable to theft or destruction. I have withheld the location beneath the county level and any photographs (of steles, signs, scenery, etc.) that might identify the place. If you are an accredited scholar and you have a good reason to want to see this information, email me and we’ll talk about it.

Structure Type: Opera Stage 戲台.

Location: Yu County, Hebei Province 河北省蔚縣. The stage sits outside what would have been the east gate of the old fort. It was faced to the north by a temple, now gutted, but I did not meet anyone in the village who could tell me what the temple had been.

Period: The stage is Qing; the paintings are probably from the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and graffiti inside date from the same periods.

Artist: Unknown.

Mural Contents: The two side walls show folding screens 屏風, which form the backdrop for the operas. The rear wall behind the now-destroyed scaenae frons has a painting of a hanging scroll with couplets 卷軸畫、對聯.

In fact most interest here are the numerous opera graffiti. There are two little pictorial graffiti by the “Literary Yu-County Troupe” 文蔚班, dated to 1895 and 1896. This troupe seems to have been very active in the remote villages of the eastern part of the basin of the Huliu River 壺流河 in the late 19th century – graffiti depicting their performances are attested in several other stages in the region.

Other Notes: While the wall-murals in the temple across from the stage are now destroyed, the triangular panels under the rafters survive, and are quite nice:

Full Gallery