Guangming Theater

Guangming Theater

Guangming Theater is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Guangming Theater, also known as "Peace Theater" and commonly referred to as the Old Theater, is located on 11th Street in Yingzhou Town. Originally built in 1934, it was designed in the style of Tianjin’s "Grand Stage," featuring an architectural blend of Chinese and Western elements. The theater faces south, measuring 48.4 meters from north to south and 25 meters from east to west, covering an area of 1,150 square meters. After its completion, it hosted performances by renowned artists and troupes from various famous opera genres. In 1945, after the liberation of Hejian, the Jizhong Administrative Office and the Jizhong Military Region headquarters were stationed in Hejian, and several important meetings were held at Guangming Theater. On the evening of November 2, 1947, Commander Zhu De watched a performance by the Central Old Drama Experimental Troupe during his inspection tour of Jizhong. From its completion until 1958, Guangming Theater remained the only large and well-equipped venue for cultural performances in Hejian. After the liberation, it was briefly renamed "Peace Theater." From the founding of the People’s Republic of China to 1965, the theater welcomed dozens of performing arts groups from central to local levels. In 1983, Tianjin Film Studio shot scenes for the feature film *Chuang Jianghu* (Venturing into the World), which depicts the struggles of entertainers in old society, using the theater’s interior. On June 24, 1995, it was designated as a "Cangzhou City Cultural Relics Protection Unit" by the Cangzhou Municipal Government; on February 7, 2001, it was listed as a "Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit" by Hebei Province. Currently, renovation work on Guangming Theater is underway.

In May 2013, Guangming Theater was included in the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units