Taiwanese Opera was developed in the early years of the 20th century by a man nicknamed "gezai Chu," whose ancestors had come to Taiwan from Zhangpu in Fujian Province. Starting out with the four-part Jin Ge musical chorus popular in southern Fujian and Taiwan, he threw in elements of Nanguan Opera, Beiguan Opera, Peking Opera, and Fuzhou Opera.
追溯歌仔戲的源頭，清末民初，祖籍福建漳浦的歌仔助，在宜蘭員山以閩南的錦歌，加上南管戲、北管戲、平劇、福州戲等戲曲養分，以土音土語為根本，融會百家，發展出草野性十足的歌仔戲來。