Lu Opera originated in Anhui 200 years ago, along with the more famous Beijing Opera. It is popular in the region of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River around Hefei.
 
Lu Opera was developed from the popular folk songs that used to pass by word of mouth around its region and it focuses more on the story and characters' emotion. Then, it has got a series of improvement on performance, dance, art, music and etc. Despite slight changes in the style and art of the performances, its original opera form can still be seen nowadays.

Mountain Huangshan is the birthplace of the Huangshan schools of painting. In the preface of A Collection of Drawings by the Ming and Qing Artists, Li Yimang, a renowned contemporary artist and painter, says: “Attracted and charmed by the appearance and connotative beauty of Mountain Huangshan, the Huangshan schools of painting has eventually evolved into a typical one of landscape painting.”

The Ming and Qing artists such as Li liufang, Shi Tao, Jian Jiang and Mei Qing lived alone in the mountain, searching for novelty, drawing nourishment from the beautiful landscape to enrich their artist creation. They observed all the miraculous peaks before they made their drawings.
 
With the compact touches, the graceful outlines and the elegant styles, their painting formed a unique school. Artists of modern and contemporary times such as Huang Binhong, Zhang Daqian, Li Keran and Liu Haisu are also fascinated with Mountain Huangshan. They express their emotion through their drawings and create a spiritual but inspiring artistic conception. Their paintings are of great value to art.

As the name indicates, Huizhou Opera originated from Huichi Tune in Huizhou and the surrounding areas of Taiping, Qingyang and Shitai in the Ming Dynasty. It enjoyed a full development during Qianlong's reign and spread all over China during Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty.
 
Huichi Tune was a combination of Huizhou Lilts and Qingyang Lilts. In the 55th year of Qianlong's reign (1790), Gao Langting, a well-known local actor led his Sanqing Huizhou Opera Troupe to Bei-jing, the capital in the Qing Dynasty, successively followed by other troupes such as Sixi, Chuntai and Hechun. They became the famous Four Huizhou Opera Troupes entering Beijing as often mentioned. The troupes aroused a sensation in the capital.

Their performances were so widely loved by the townspeople of the capital that in every theatre Huizhou Opera was put on, and in every performance a Huizhou Troupe took a major part. After that, Cheng Changgeng, a native of Anqing and a descendant of Gao Langting, helped develop Huizhou Opera into Peking Opera by combining it with Han, Kun and other operas. So Huizhou Opera in a sense is an ancestor of Peking Opera.

The three most famous caving styles in Huizhuo are, brick, stone, and wood carving. The three carvings originated in Song Dynasty and reached their peak in Ming and Qing Dynasty. The carvings are mainly used as decorations for civil residences, ancestral temples, arches and handicrafts like furniture, shelters, pencil vases and etc.

Brick carving, done in fine gray bricks of varying shapes and sizes, mainly decorated brick frames and eaves above the gates. The process had two steps: the first step was composing and chiseling an outline in the brick, usually done by a veteran artisan who was familiar with many traditional themes and composition; the second step was carving the relief into the outline, usually done by the apprentices.

With the gray brick being more brittle than ivory, animal bone or wood, but easier to process than the stone, the art of brick carving has a unique style. The exaggeration and distortion of images required by the limited frame they were cut within, and the neat high relief determined by the texture of bricks, help to strengthen the ornamental effect of the work.
 
The diversified themes of brick carvings can be divided into the following two kinds: historical, and flora and fauna.

The first kind includes scenes from myths, legends, opera stories, folk customs and so on. Dignitaries in a procession, woodcutters or farmers at work, and shepherd boys on the back of buffaloes are constant images. There are also scenes of people feeding farm animals and fowl, pushing carts, carrying water, and poling boats, as well as scenes of entertainment and performances.

The second kind includes images of animals, birds and flowers. Temples were usually decorated with images of dragons and phoenixes. The southern Anhui artisans were most skilled at carving lions. Following traditional images, they portrayed the lions in various imaginary poses playing with balls and dancing. Each lion was given a personality——some fierce, some naive, some naughty. More than two lions appearing in one scene are carefully arranged and portrayed so that their poses together form a coherent whole. Other animals like elephants, tigers, dogs, rabbits and monkeys were also common images in brick carving.

Plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, pomegranate, orange, tangerine, loquat and lichi were other popular objects for brick carvers. There is a carving of an egret standing beside blossoming and budding lotus flowers——with images vivid and true to life, the composition discards the traditional symmetry and distortion. This makes the whole work resemble a beautiful painting. These carvings are always framed by symmetrical ancient vessel patterns, eight-treasure patterns and cloud patterns.
 
Brick carving in the Ming Dynasty was simple and plain, like Han Dynasty stone carvings in tombs. The sculptured main figures and the background in low relief combine without proper perspective. The simple themes, stereotyped figures and symmetric composition make the carving highly decorative. During the last years of the Ming Dynasty and the first years of the Qing Dynasty, brick carving started to show certain influences from the rising of the Xin'an painting school in southern Anhui and the spread of elegant, colorful Anhui-style woodcuts.

During the Qing Dynasty, when the merchants were wealthier, brick carving became more exquisite and complex to suit their magnificent houses. A carving in a brick with a surface less than 0.1 square meter would show several gradations of perspective, with a composition like that of a Chinese painting.
 
Wood carvings were often found on beams, pillars and their above brackets, upturned eaves, railings, doors, windows and such furniture as cupboards and tables. The application of tung oil instead of colorful paint exposed the natural texture of wood while at the same time protecting the carvings from corrosion.

Stones were used to build the house foundations, memorial archways or bridges, and stone carvings are often seen on roof-beam plates, eaves and socles. The range patterns include Hindu swastika, diamond, plum blossom, bamboo, and dragon.

The Flower-drum Dance is popular in the area of Bengbu City and Huainan City along the Huai River. It integrates folk arts, such as dancing, singing, gong and drum playing, and playlets together, and is famous for its vivid rhythms, passionate atmosphere, elegant poses, fine performances, and artistic charm.

The Flower-drum Dance is very popular with audiences. During the time of traditional festivals, temple fairs, slack seasons in farming, or plenteous harvest times, people will dress up, lighting up lanterns, beating the gongs and drums, festively dancing and singing. When many performance teams meet together for joint celebration, a grand occasion will take place. Following China's open policies, the Flower-drum Dance has been promoted and glorified; now it has become a splendid “oriental ballet” in world art circles.