The first Chinese people to come into contact with Western drama were diplomats who went to the West. Either because of diplomatic etiquette or out of curiosity, they watched the performance of Western dramas. Obviously, they are curious about this, and what interests them the most is: first, they relish the beauty of Western theater architecture, which is "more magnificent than the palace"; second, they are surprised by the noble status of Western artists, the so-called "British theater" The dramatists are artists, not as cheap as the Chinese actors." "The reputation of the actors is so important that they compete with the princes." Third, he laments the realistic scenery of Western dramas, which "make the viewer feel that they are not human if they are immersed in the scene." ; Fourth, they value or exaggerate the social function of Western drama. Taking France as an example, after the Franco-German War, France was defeated, so it raised a huge sum of money to build a theater "to encourage the people of the country to bravely take revenge."

Later, with the opening of China's coastal ports to the outside world, some Western missionaries and foreign expatriates poured into China, and Shanghai became their main gathering place. Here they entertained themselves by performing some Western plays. In 1866, expats established the first Western-style theater in Shanghai, the Lanxin Theater. It was run by foreigners and regularly performed plays written by the amateur theater troupe ADC. Some Chinese people who have studied abroad or are interested in Western dramas often visit the Lyceum Theater. They are lucky enough to watch Western dramas in China, and gradually have a more concrete understanding of this new artistic style.

It should be pointed out that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when Western dramas poured into China, traditional Chinese operas were also experiencing the impact of changing thoughts. At that time, some people in the opera industry were very dissatisfied that the old plays could not reflect the reality of Chinese society, so they set off a wave of opera improvement and created "new operas based on current affairs".

The reference for improving opera is Western realistic drama in the eyes of Chinese people. Wang Xiaonong (1858-1918), a famous opera artist at that time, created and adapted many operas that referenced the past and present, in order to satirize the corruption of the Qing government and promote the "reform". In the performance of this new current affairs drama, the professions of raw, dan, net, mo, and ugliness are no longer so clearly divided, and the stage settings tend to be realistic. As a result, we saw the contemporary people in "He Fan, Flower Feathers and Yellow Mandarins" shuttle across the stage with realistic scenery. Even some foreign stories have been compiled into new dramas about current affairs, with some "foreigners" in suits performing the routine actions of Chinese operas. For example, in the play "The Tragedy of the Fall of Poland", it just added some dialogues and reduced some singing.

In China, another force promoting the reform of opera comes from new schools. At that time, some schools followed the example of Western student dramas and used holidays to allow students to hold dramatic benefit performances aimed at praising gods or relieving disasters. Obviously, the difficult Chinese opera Kung Fu is not easy for students to master, but Western drama, which uses dialogue and movement expressions to express ideas, is easy for them to imitate. Therefore, it is reasonable for them to abandon opera and adopt Western drama in their performances.

In 1899, Chinese students at St. John's College in Shanghai wrote and performed a new play called "Official History." The play describes a wealthy country man who visited a wealthy gentleman's house in the city. He was overwhelmed when he saw the luxurious scene, made many jokes, and was greatly embarrassed. After returning home, this man determined to become an official, but he actually donated a gift to become a county magistrate. Although he also learned some official etiquette, he couldn't solve the case. Later, he was finally dismissed from his post and took off his official uniform on the spot, but what was still exposed underneath was the homespun clothes of a countryman.

This play has "neither singing nor workmanship". The performance method is completely different from traditional opera, but some of the plots are adapted from traditional opera. The development of student acting activities broke the limitation of Chinese people's traditional consciousness that acting was a lowly profession, and laid the foundation for later overseas students' acting activities and literati acting activities. In addition, the actors in this type of performance are Chinese, and the audiences they attract are mostly ordinary Chinese people. This makes Western dramas no longer exclusive to a few foreigners, but begins to slowly reach the Chinese people. Therefore, people regard students' new current affairs dramas as the pioneers of early Chinese dramas.