Taiwanese Opera originated and has been developed here in Taiwan. In the Japanese Occupation Period, it developed skills from the Shanghai School of Beijing Opera which came to Taiwan from Shanghai and Fuzhou, and gradually emerged into a unique operatic form. The period from 1940 to 1960 is the golden age of “nei-tai-xi” (Taiwanese Opera was performed in indoor theaters). This opera is an opera of a knight-errant full of off-stage devices produced by Ms. Liao Chiung-chih, who was invited by the Preparatory Office of the Headquarters of National Taiwan Traditional Arts. It has adapted the changing settings of Fuzhuo troupes of former times with a generous amount of special effects, such as using real water for its rainy-day setting, five dragons spitting water, five snakes spitting at a distance, a divine eagle swallowing a sword, fighting in the air, competing in feats of magical power with glistening swords, and wire flying.

This is an adaptation of The Legend of Yung Ching, a novel of knight errand written by Ping-jiang-bu-xiao-sheng in the beginning of the Republic. In the adaptations of Peking Opera, Fuzhou Opera, and Ge-zi Opera, the title of The Burning of Red Lotus Temple was taken after the movie of the same title. Liao Chiung-chih remembers that the opera used to be performed as a series of ten days with complex plot, starting with the background of all of the martial arts fighters of Kun-lun School. Then it showed how the couple, Hong-gu and Gan Guei-wu, joined the school, and how Kun-lun School joined force with Lu Xiao-qing, a guard of the local commander, to break into the Red Lotus Temple of Kung-tung School and capture Monk Zhi-yuan who imprisoned and raped common girls. The actors of this opera include those of old, middle, and young generations. Good characters and evil characters engage in spectacular hand-to-hand fight on stage.