After two hundred years’ development, Chinese Opera, which absorbed the essence of different opera forms during this period, has become one of the most important treasures of our cultural heritage.  On July 1, 1995, after going through a rigorous review process, the elite performers of three military theater groups, Lu Guang, Hai Guang, and Da Peng, of the Department of National Defense, as well as the cream of Feima Honan Opera Group, formed the National Guoguang Opera Company to carry out the mission of interpreting traditional drama and promoting artistic education. On March 6, 2008, after administrative reorganization, Guoguang Opera Company formally became a division of the Traditional Arts Center of the Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Art, under the aegis of the Council for Cultural Affairs.      

　　From the beginning, Guoguang Opera Company has forged modern ideologies into traditional grace by actively incorporating dramatic concepts into Chinese Opera.  In addition to performing traditional opera classics on a regular basis, the company has presented many wonderful new operas which combine pulsating social issues and the spirit of humanity derived from literary works, historical legends, and folktales.  For example, the Taiwan Trilogy: Matsu the Goddess, Zheng Cheng-Gong and Taiwan, and Liao Tian-Ding, is adapted from the folk literature of Taiwan.  Moreover, to attract new audiences, the company has produced many acclaimed new operas such as The Annals of Great Generals (winner of the Golden Bell Award for TV in 2000), An Everlasting Love, “Cowherd, Weaver Girl, and Sirius,” Journey through Hell (winner of the Golden Bell Award for TV in 2002, and one of the top ten performances of the First Tai-shin Arts Awards), Wang Xi-Fong (one of the top nine performances of the Second Tai-shin Arts Awards), Emperor Li Shi-Min and Wei Zheng, The Butterfly Lovers (the first Kunqui Opera produced in Taiwan), Three Persons and Two Lamps (winner of the Jury’s Special Award of the Fourth Tai-shin Arts Awards and the Golden Bell Award for TV in 2006), The Golden Cangue, Hu Xue-Yen, Tender Is the Day (a new production),  Mr. Goodman Dumps His Wife (a mini-opera), and A Conversation at the Tombstone.  All of the above have created sensations at the box office and won wide acclaim.  In 2007, in cooperation with the National Symphony Orchestra, a new opera, Sunshine after Snowfall, was produced.  Both The Golden Cangue and A Conversation at the Tombstone won top ten performances of the Fifth Tai-shin Arts Awards, and for these operas, Wang An-Chi won the award for Best Lyrics in the category of Traditional Arts of the 21st Golden Melody Awards, and Chen Mei-Lan won the award for Best Interpretation of Traditional Music.  In 2008, the company staged a new production of The Number One Family in the World, and in 2009, in cooperation with the National Theater, the company produced Orlando, directed by Robert Wilson, an internationally acclaimed master of dramatic stage. The opera combined the gestures and body language of Chinese Opera of the East and the dramatic creativity of the West in a performance that spawned much discussion.  In October of the same year, the company produced a new Chinese Opera with a fantastic theme, Fox Tales, which received invitations for performances in Beijing, Xiamen, and Fuzhou in November, 2009.  In 2010, the company was invited to perform The Golden Cangue in Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  A new musical, Meng Xiao-Dong, produced in March, also earned much acclaim and numerous compliments.  Comedy Classics: Laughing All the Way, produced for the coming of the New Year at the end of 2011, proved a sensation that was sold out instantly.
As it continues to search for new themes and elements in its performances of Chinese Opera, the company has also broadened its audience base by putting on performances in different corners of the world, in urban areas and the countryside, both indoors and outdoors, to give people everywhere the opportunity to view and come to appreciate traditional drama.  In addition, the company has active in participating in international dramatic exchanges.  It has been invited to perform in such diverse venues as France, Germany, Italy, Czech, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, China, and Hong Kong; in so doing, it has drawn international attention to the beauty of Chinese traditional drama.  In promoting dramatic arts education, Guoguang offers popular, diversified, and sophisticated artistic activities through annual performances, seasonal performances, campus tours, community tours, Guoguang dramatic forums, dramatic workshops, and dramatic demonstrations. It thereby hopes to expose people of different age groups in different areas and with different educational backgrounds to traditional performance arts.
We believe that innovation is based on traditions of time-tested value. Guoguang Opera Company spares no effort in its on-going productions of traditional drama and upholds the highest standards of artistic excellence as it creates new operas.  We believe that we will soon bear witness a new resplendent flourishing of traditional drama.