Recently, the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" entered Tsinghua University and completed its 500th performance in her life journey. 20 years ago, writer Bai Xianyong keenly recognized the importance of young audiences in the inheritance of Kunqu opera and proposed that "my Kunqu opera is for the audience of the 21st century. Nowadays, more and more traditional Chinese opera plays are breaking through boundaries with their youthful presentation, and appreciating and spreading traditional Chinese opera has become a cultural trend. The development of traditional Chinese opera art cannot be separated from innovative thinking guided by the audience, from the Yuan dynasty composer Hu Zhiyu's proposal of "daily innovation rather than traditional practices" to the Qing dynasty composer Li Yu's viewpoint that "the beauty of legend lies in being deeply moved by emotions, and should also be adapted to the world". Among them, there is a high level of cultural consciousness among the literary and artistic community, as well as innovative thinking inherent in traditional Chinese opera. In the creation of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" at that time, writer Bai Xianyong adopted the principle of "classical as the body, modern as the use", integrating modern elements into classical Kunqu opera, presenting "The Peony Pavilion" in a new makeup and appearance to the audience, achieving the integration of Kunqu opera and contemporary aesthetics. The subsequent establishment of the Kunqu Opera into campus curriculum system opened the way for Kunqu art education. This exploration has proactively opened up a practice for young people to perceive the beauty of Kunqu opera, bringing about a wave of youthfulness in Kunqu opera. Youthfulness is not only a change in the form of opera, but also a conceptual innovation, and even a deepening of aesthetics. After the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion", Bai Xianyong continued to produce "The Jade Hairpin" (2009), "The White Robe Shirt" (2016), and "The Heroic Heroes" (2018). In the new version of "The Jade Hairpin", he restored the original appearance of the "elegant part" of Kunqu Opera and integrated Chinese and Western tragic concepts into "The White Robe Shirt". Through the practice of "one play, one style", he continuously deepened the theme of youth. In this process, the "New Aesthetics of Kunqu Opera" was proposed, namely "abstraction, freehand brushwork, lyricism, and poeticization". The "new" here is not opposed to the "old", but is built on the basis of the "old", which is the consistent tradition of Kunqu Opera and the fundamental basis that Kunqu Opera cannot be separated from at any time. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the refinement of Kunqu Opera has benefited from three groups: literati, composers, and artists. Literati infuse interest and talent into their writing, establishing a refined atmosphere. Qu artists delve into the study of rhythm, making their singing increasingly perfect. Artists deeply cultivate the stage and performance, giving Kunqu its ultimate aesthetic appearance. Based on this, Kunqu has undergone historical accumulation and cultural precipitation, forming a stable tradition of rhythm, literature, performance, and stage design, which has become the cornerstone of Kunqu aesthetics and a tradition followed in future Kunqu art practice. Among them, literature and vocal music have been passed down in the form of scripts and scores, forming a stable form of inheritance. Performance is carried by the body, passed down through word of mouth, passed down from master to disciple, and changes with the trend of the world. The saying goes, 'The tone of the world changes every thirty years, from the Yuan Dynasty to the present day, I don't know how many changes it has undergone!' This is the truth behind it. The "unchanging" practice of the "New Aesthetics of Kunqu Opera" is reflected in the attitude and approach towards the text, whether it is text organization, reduction without modification, or appropriate adaptation. The idea is to highlight the main line, remove the branches, refine the plot, and connect the scenes, which is easy for the audience to accept. The "changes" are the adjustments made to clothing, music, and scenery that conform to traditional aesthetics, following the aesthetic style of "lotus emerging from the water" in traditional aesthetics, integrating calligraphy, painting, and qin music, giving people an elegant and refined beauty. At first glance, it appears new beauty, but in reality, it is ancient charm. Whether it is' change 'or' unchanged ', it is actually a adherence to tradition. This has also sparked a trend in the field of traditional Chinese opera that combines "modern consciousness" with "traditional classics" for youthful inheritance, providing a reference for opera to cope with new environmental changes. Other types of traditional Chinese opera have also begun to explore youthfulness. This exploration usually manifests in four aspects. The first is that the content of the play is a theme of youth love stories, the second is that the actors in the play are young actors, the third is that the audience of the play is young people, and the fourth is that the aesthetic style and taste of the play are in line with the aesthetic psychology of young people. Many theater troupes and genres have different intentions, goals, and style positioning in their specific implementation. The mainstream form is a traditional play that represents the theme of youth love in this genre, which undergoes a contemporary aesthetic transformation and interpretation, bringing young audiences closer to tradition and achieving a contemporary visual presentation of classical aesthetics. Such as youth versions of Peking Opera such as "Yang Men Female Generals" and "Mu Guiying", youth versions of Yue Opera such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Butterfly Lovers" and "Jade Hairpin", youth versions of Huangmei Opera such as "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", "Heavenly Fairy Match" and "Female Princess", as well as youth versions of Lu Opera such as "Spring Snow Plum Blossom", Huizhou Opera such as "Legend of the White Snake", and Xiju opera such as "Pearl Tower". These plays embody and showcase the aesthetic style and performance skills of this genre, and are also deeply loved by the older generation of audiences. This type of exploration follows the concept of youthfulness proposed by Bai Xianyong and is consistent with the consistent inheritance path of our theater troupe. It can be said that it is a "step change" rather than a "transformation". Another form is no longer based on traditional plays, but on starting anew, using youthful creative concepts for script writing and stage rehearsals, showcasing the artistic talent and individual expression of young creative groups. The original plays "Spring River Flower Moon Night" and "Six Records of Floating Life" that have been recognized in the field of Kunqu opera, although not directly titled as youth versions, fully conform to the concept of youth oriented opera in terms of creative intention and aesthetic form. The youth version of Gan opera "Dream of the Red Chamber", Yue opera "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "New Dragon Gate Inn" and others have also continued this idea and achieved good social response. Another form is the experimental exploration of young creative groups, such as the youth version of the experimental Sichuan opera "Li Hentian · Shen". However, such works are still in their infancy and have a long way to go. Exploring the youthfulness of traditional Chinese opera is an inevitable requirement put forward by the times. With the iteration of media technology, building new media landscapes, social landscapes, and cultural landscapes has become a major trend in cultural development. Youthfulness is an effective strategy and method developed through long-term accumulation and exploration by Chinese opera practitioners to adapt to the development of the times through self transformation and adjustment. This kind of self exploration by opera performers, combined with the trend of traditional cultural revival promoted by economic development in recent years, also promotes opera as a material library for popular cultural innovation from another perspective. Therefore, the cross-border integration of traditional Chinese opera has emerged, with various perspectives, forms, and modes of innovation emerging one after another. Opera elements can be seen in live streaming, opera songs, rap, audio-visual programs, immersive theaters, holographic theaters, and other fields. Traditional opera has become one of the symbols of the "new national style". The exploration of youthfulness in traditional Chinese opera has gone through 20 years and has become an effective means of opera creation and dissemination, reaching maturity in artistic form and aesthetic concepts. This mature experience of internalizing phenomena into concepts and gradually evolving into a creative model provides a new reference paradigm for promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture in the process of modernization. (New Society)