As far as the tone is concerned, Yuju (He'nan Opera) belongs to the category of clapper opera. It has four schools: namely Xiangfu tone centered by Kaifeng, Eastern He'nan tone, centered by Shangqiu, Western He'nan tone, centered by Luoyang and Shahe tone centered by the drainage area of the Shahe River in south-eastern He'nan.

Yuju artists say that there were two early teaching schools, namely Jiang and Xu. They established schools to teach Yuju, the Jiang taught in Zhuxian Town to the south of Kaifeng while the Xu taught in Qingheji to the east of Kaifeng. Later, those around the Kaifeng area developed into the Xiangfu tone. Those spread to Shangqiu area developed into the Eastern He'nan tone; those spread into Luoyang developed into Western He'nan tone and those spread into Luohe developed into the Shahe tone.

Since 1927, talented Yuju actresses like Wang Runzhi, Ma Shuangzhi, Chen Suzhen, Chang Xiangyu, Ma Jinfeng and others absorbed the essence of Zhuizi (ballad singing to the accompaniment of the Zhuiqin), Dagu (drum), and Beijing Opera while performing in Kaifeng and other cities. The new plays written by Fan Cuiting and Wang Zhennan for Chen Suzhen and Chang Xiangyu brought great changes to the stage performance of Yuju. In 1938, Chang Xiangyu started a new school of opera performance on the ground of Western He'nan tones, absorbing some of the Eastern He'nan tones, breaking through the confining boundaries.

Famous for its skillful voice control, fluent tones, vivid rhythms and popular spoken language, Yuju is clear in lyrics, lively in tone, easy to understand, plain in style and rich in local colors.

Masterpieces of Yuju are Dui Huaqiang (Two-spear Fight); San Shangjiao (Thrice on Board the Sedan Chair); Di Tangban; Tikou, Zha Mei'an (The Beheading of A Ungrateful Husband), Shi'er Guafu Zhengxi (The Fight Led by Twelve Widows) and so on. Some of them are edited or adapted from traditional plays, including the Hongniang, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Took Command, The Conquest of Hongzhou, County Governor Tang Interrogated the Royal Lady, etc. Original or adapted modern plays are Chaoyanggou Valley, Liu Hulan, Li Shuangshuang, etc. Some of the adapted plays are The Marriage of Xiao'erhei, Luohanqian, Sister Xianglin, Girl Wuguniang, The Red Detachment of Women and many others.

As the saying goes, “The Chinese Kungfu impresses the world while Shaolin Kungfu is the origin of Chinese Kungfu”.

The Shaolin Kungfu originated in the ancient Mountain Songshan Shaolin Temple. It is said that the Indian Dignitary Bodhidharma, who taught Zen sect of Buddhism in Mountain Songshan Shaolin Temple in the year 527 in Northern Wei Dynasty, created a body exercise named “Huoshenfa” on the basis of daily activities of Chinese ancient laborers to stretch the body, get rid of the tiredness out of long time of sitting and thinking, fight against beasts in the forest and protect the temple. In his spare time, he practiced some movements to strengthen the body and protect himself against theft with chains, sticks, staves and swords, later called “Tamo Chains”, “Tamo Staves” and “Tamo swords”. Thereafter, he learned from the flight of birds and jump of animals, etc, to develop the “Huoshenfa” into a set of exercises named Luohanshou, combining movements with quietness.

This set of body exercises developed into a martial art of over 100 kinds with generations of improvement, generally called “Shaolinquan” in martial art. Since the South and North Dynasties, the growing requirements of the society made the Shaolin martial art develop towards consummate fighting skills. Monk soldiers were organized to begin the training strictly, starting every morning at dawn, whether in steaming summer or in freezing winter, continuing their practice.

Shaolin Martial Art has been enjoying great fame since the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty, was a fan of martial art. He created some new martial art and kept them in his works which was preserved in the Shaolin Temple. Till the end of the Jin Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Shaolinquan had made great progress. Great masters of Shaolinquan such as Bai Yufeng, Jueyuan, Li Sou and others devoted themselves to Shaolinquan and paid much attention to its collection and spreading. They developed the “Luohan Shiba Shou”, that is, the Eighteen Martial Skills, into seventy-two, later one hundred and seventy three skills. In the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Dignitary Fu Ju invited famous martial art masters of 28 schools to Shaolin Temple to practice and teach martial art for two years.

Since the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, it had been very popular among visitors of Shaolin Temple to watch martial art shows as the climax ending of the tour to this ancient temple.

Taijiquan (Shadow boxing) originates from Chenjiagou, a small village to the east of Wenxian County, He'nan Province.

Written accounts about the boxing arts, figures and stories of Taijiquan began from records of Chen Wangting, the descendant of the ninth generation of the Chen family. Chen Wangting, a celebrated name in Henan and Shandong area during the period between the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, had once mopped up the bandit gangs in Shandong and won such a great reputation that the gangsters dared not approach him. Yet in the unrest society, he could not fulfill his ambitions, so he lived in seclusion in his old age and created Taijiquan, which was based on the martial arts handed down from his ancestors, absorbing the merits of various kungfu schools and combining the theory of yin and yang, the doctrine of jingluo of traditional Chinese medicine and the art of expiration and inspiration. Chen Wangting passed on five sets of Taijiquan, one set of paochui (powerful boxing), 108 positions of changquan (long boxing), double tuishou (pushing hands) and weapons such as dao (broad sword), qiang (spear), gun (staff), jian (mace), double nian qiang (a special spear), etc. The double tuishou and the double nian qiang, in particular, are unprecedented and innovative. Most works of Chen Wangting could not be found any more due to long years and only his Ballad on Arts of Boxing and one poem named Changduanju (Random Sentences) are handed down.

Exercising taijiquan is very popular in Chenjiagou, and everyone there, young or old, man or woman, all do such exercises. The local saying goes like this: “Whoever drinks water of Chenjiagou will know how to practice taijiquan.” Such customs are passed on from generation to generation, thus many famous kungfu masters emerged through the ages.

Taijiquan of Chen Family has gradually developed into four major styles. Nowadays, taijiquan has been popularized in China, and has been known aboard. While the martial arts of Shaolin Temple are celebrated for its strength and swiftness, the taijiquan of Chen Family is world-renowned for its combination of force and gentleness.

It is at least 500 years since people in Lingbao, He'nan first began to play Daoqing, a kind of opera coming out during the prime time of a kind of lyric song of the Yuan Dynasty. This play is accompanied with musical instruments such as the xian (string), the di (flute), the ban (clapper), the tongqi (bronze musical instrument), and so on. When it was performed, six or five people would sit together to play the instruments and sing together. Later, stage props such as shadows and puppets were added into the performance.

The music for Huanxian daoqing is loud and sonorous, melodious and beautiful, with lucid and lively rhythms.

In Huanxian County, all the stage props of daoqing shadow play could be put into two cartons, which could be carried on the back of a donkey. Thus it is very convenient for performers to travel around villages and give performances. Usually, daoqing is performed in the local cave-houses, so people also called it “houtayao” (literarily means that the music of the play is so loud that the cave house would collapse).

Characters of shadow play all have a big head and a relatively small body. They are narrow in the upper part of the body and wide in the lower part, and have very long arms. All characters have their distinctive features according to their genders, dispositions and identities. Male shadow puppets have large head, square face, broad forehead, big nose and hefty figure, while female shadow puppets have oval head, thin face, small nose, delicate mouth and slender figure. Characters of scholars and gentleman have thick eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and always wear gowns, very nice and elegant, while characters of military men and brave warriors have big head, round eyes and thick beard, and wear martial attires, full of power and grandeur.

Pan Drum of Kaifeng is one of the folk custom performances and one of the Five Drums of China: the other four are Taiping Durm of Lanzhou, Waist Drum of Ansai, Weifeng Drum of Shanxi and Fengyang Drum of Anhui. The history of Pan Drum can be dated back to very long ago. At the very beginning it was played for exorcising evils, and as time went by, it has rather become a musical instrument for celebrating, well-known for its sonority, grandeur and power. Every day, in the square by the east gate of the Qingming Shanghe Garden, after the performance of “Lord Bao Welcoming Guests”, drummers begin to beat Pan Drum before the statue of Zhang Zeduan (the painter of Qingming Shanghe Painting). Performers include one flag bearer, 8 small cymbal players and 16 drummers. During the performance, the flags fly and the small cymbals flutter. Performers dance and skip, forming different but orderly patterns. Listening to the vigorous and hot drumbeat and watching the bold and free dance, how could tourists not be moved? “Beating like thunders and acting like billows” is the feature of Pan Drum of Kaifeng, and people could get the indomitable characters of Chinese people out of it.