Foshan is known as the home of Guangdong Opera or Yueju,The"Red Boat" where players stayed while visiting the city,still stands here.

Huanggong Ancestral Temple, within which is the Guangdong Opera Museum, is just a few minutes' walk from Zumiao. Opened in 2003, its 2,000 square-meter exhibition area is divided into 13 sections, displaying 3,000 out of a total 20,000 relics that celebrate the history, art and personages of the opera. Exhibits include stage costumes, play books, program sheets, performance posters, musical instruments, photo albums, and works of painting and calligraphy by famous opera performers dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties and including contemporary artists. It is the largest museum of folk opera in China.

Guangdong Opera has been popular in Foshan since the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 AD). Qionghua (Jade Flower, another name for Guangdong Opera) Guild Hall, first of its kind, was established during Ming Emperor Jiajing's reign, demonstrating that Foshan had long been a Guangdong Opera center. The early Qing Dynasty was the Silver Age of Foshan's Guangdong Opera. Having absorbed the rhythms and cadences of Guangdong music and balladry, as well as aspects of Southern martial arts Schools, Guangdong opera spanned both refined and popular tastes. Famous dramatist Tian Han described Guangdong Opera as "ebullient while exceedingly sentimental." There are 1,1361 Guangdong Opera plays - the world's longest play list.

The charm of Guangdong opera permeates Foshan's residential areas, teahouses, and small theaters. It has more than 400 amateur opera troupes with players numbering 5,000. In 2003, the Foshan municipal government organized a Guangdong Opera culture week whose various performances included renditions of Guangdong operas in English, Portuguese and Malay.