Why can Taiwanese Opera touch the hearts of the people in Taiwan? It's because Taiwanese Opera employed forms of folk music and dramas, mainly representing custom, religion and daily life of the Taiwanese. More than one hundred years ago, Taiwanese Opera evolved from the simple musical expression of chanting lyrics. It was common that people would like to sing songs when they were working or taking a break between work. While some talented people tried to get more fun from singing, they added some short plots and played roles. As a result, a brief drama was formed. Later, other performing arts such as "Beijung Opera", "Lan-Tan", and "Nan- Guan", were incorporated. Taiwanese Opera is like a sponge, absorbing the best of other art form. For example, people adapted stories, music, and costumes from other performances. Then, these "foreign" things were changed and became Taiwanese style. Today, Gua-A-He continues absorbing many new elements and skills to adapt to the modern society. This is one of the reasons why Taiwanese Opera can survive today.

In this modem society, many people still like to see Taiwanese Opera. However, the flourishing period of Gua-A-He happened forty or fifty years ago (1945 - 1960) and continued for about ten years. At that time, it was such a favorite type of drama that people rushed to theaters and even bought disks to enjoy it. People not only buy tickets to see the performances, but also buy presents for their favorite performers. Moreover, some superstars got gold neck-chains or jewelry from their audiences Taiwanese Opera is not only popular in Taiwan at that time; furthermore, many troupes went abroad (e.g. Singapore, China) and many famous dramas were filmed. As a result, it was also at that period that the "Xiang Ju" in Singapore originated from Taiwanese Opera. In addition, those Taiwanese Opera lovers still come to Taiwan to see the Taiwanese Opera performances or buy video tapes or video CDs from Taiwan.

Till now, the Taiwanese Opera has been progressed many different types of performances: street shows, open-air stage shows, theater stage shows, radio broadcast shows, movie performances, and television performances. Taiwanese Opera became mass culture from folk culture while Taiwanese Opera was filmed as movie performances. Naturally, these mass media forms of performances have different styles and characteristics. In addition, the movie performance of Taiwanese Opera was the pioneer of movie industry in Taiwan. However, the radio broadcast shows and movie performances have been gone for a long time. In my own opinion, it is possible that someone will film a Taiwanese Opera movie again in the future, because more and more young people in Taiwan love Gua-A-He and they have more and more enthusiasm in making Taiwanese Opera get better and better. Not only many professional troupes continue performing, more and more amateur clubs and student associations are formed. These amateur clubs and student associations learn to play Taiwanese Opera as well as try to promote Taiwanese Opera.