Sai Yong Hong is one of the best-known troupes in Thailand. It has 34 actors, five of whom are from China and the rest from Thailand, and, on that night, about 60 people attended the performance. The manager, Tatchai Obthong, 52, said that when he was younger a troupe would have about 100 actors and the crowds were much larger.

Like so much of Chinese opera throughout the world, the performances are a product of a large Chinese diaspora. Sai Yong Hong is one of about 20 Chinese opera troupes in Thailand. The audience consists mostly of older Thai-Chinese adults, some of whom take their grandchildren to connect with a cultural memory that has been passed down for generations.

Chinese migration to Thailand can be traced to the 13th century. Today about 14 percent of the population is ethnically Chinese, making Thailand the home of one of the world’s largest Chinese communities outside China.

The performance mixes elements of martial arts, singing and dancing, accompanied by music played on traditional Chinese instruments like the hammered dulcimer and the four-stringed pipa. Their scripts are primarily based on Chinese folk stories, but some are adaptations of Indian movies. They are delivered in Teochew, a dialect originating in Southern China.