The acoustics of the traditional theater in South China: The case of Wanfu theatre

The interplay of Wanfu theatre is remarkable in traditional Guangdong Opera performance. It is located at the ancestral joss house in Foshan, where is the cradle land of Guangdong Opera. As one of the well-preserved gorgeous and elaborated historical architecture in South China, it is not only important to the architecture history, but also to the opera performance. It is nowadays frequently performance space for Guangdong opera. The architecture details are described in this work, especially with a great detail of the theatre stage. By means of both in field measurements and sound field computer simulation with room acoustics software ODEON, the most important features of the sound field in Wanfu theatre are clarified and discussed. The measurement results of acoustical parameters EDT, G and C₈₀ are compared with simulated values. Some discrepancies of strength G are found in the side balcony between the measurement results and the simulated values.