Huju is a regional genre in the xiqu form, which is currently popular in the Shanghai region. Most of its music and melodic-passages are originated in the Dongxiang Tunes (dongxiang diao) of the Pudong area. Huju took its shape in the early 20th century, but its current name was not used until 1941 when the professional theatre company “Shanghai Huju Society” was established. When huju was formalized, the “civilized drama” (or wenmingxi in Chinese), the earlier version of the modern spoken drama was popular and it is likely that themes, stories and performing style of wenmingxi and huju influenced each other a great deal since both theatrical forms were well-received in Shanghai. Huju is good at presenting stories of contemporary lives both present day and the late Qing dynasty when the genre first emerged.
沪剧流行于上海和江苏、浙江的部分地区。源于上海浦东地区的民歌，清末（20世纪初）开始形成，当时叫作滩簧（本滩），后来是申曲，直到20世纪40年代正式定名为沪剧。该剧种形成之际正是文明戏（话剧诞生期的形式）鼎盛时期，因此在主题、剧情和表演样式方面受到文明戏很大影响，沪剧善于上演当代生活，因此清末的故事也是沪剧擅长的剧目。