Nearly a century ago, Taiwanese opera went from being a type of street performance to the outdoor stage. Being sung in Taiwanese--as opposed to the archaic spoken Chinese of Nanguan and Beiguan opera or the Beijing dialect used in Peking opera--it quickly swept the island. It was even staged indoors at times.
百餘年前，歌仔戲由沿街搬弄「落地掃」的形式登上野台，因為以「台語」唱作的親切性，有別於唱古語的南、北管，或是唱京話的京戲，一下子便風靡了寶島，進入戲院演出，稱為「內台歌仔戲」。