Luantan by day ... For a long time, traditional Chinese moral concepts effectively banned females from performing in the often-suggestive three-part tea-picking opera, so the female roles used to be played in most cases by male performers. That did not change in any major way until the 1940s when a group of child stars-including Cheng Jung-hsing's grandmother (Cheng Mei-mei) and Ah Yu-tan-broke the taboo.
演員方面，因採茶戲中常有男女調情的山歌小調，在傳統禮教的約束下，女性自然不被允許走這一行，因此早期客家採茶戲沒有女演員，多由男性反串，直到民國初年，鄭榮興的祖母（鄭美妹）及阿玉旦這第一批童齡女演員加入後，才慢慢有女演員。