The Revolution of 1912 overthrew the Qing Dynasty and gave birth to the Republic of China. This was not only a milestone in Chinese history, but also a turn in the development of Zhejiang folk arts.

During this period, many kinds of folk arts were heavily influenced by the society and were developed in both form and content to meet the recreational needs of urban residents. From one or two performers to many performers, from light make-up to the painted, from platform to lofty hathpace, folk arts evolved to operas little by little yet still coexisted with the latter. The quickest among them was "Luo Di Chang Shu" of Shenxian County.

As early as in the last years of Qing Dynasty, some artists from countryside of Shengxian County made a living on singing door to door folk tunes like Xuan Juan, Dao Qing and Lian Hua Luo. Later, they combined walking-and-singing art of Ningbo, and created a tune of their own: Si Gong He Diao. The local dialect and legend stories in the area were both worked into the tune. During the slack seasons, these countrymen would call on their neighbors and sang in the yard. They had no stage properties like even a table or a chair, nor did they have any motions to go along with their singing. So their performance was a lot different from those staged operas and the artists gave a rather self-abasing name to their art "Luo Di Chang Shu (ground singing)". In its course of development, the art experienced successively the 1852-1889 early stage when the performers sat on the ground and sang and the 1889-1906 later stage when they began to perform on the platforms. Programs for the early stage were mainly auspicious wishes and short introductory stories such as Blessings, Happiness and Longevity, Eight Immortals Crossing The Sea, Good Luck Of Wealth, and Good Harvest. There were also some short or medium-length novels centering on daily life and folk anecdotes, for example, Ten Weird Things, Ten Rare Things, Silk Worm Girl and Child Bride Going Home. Later, another tune, namely, Yin O Tune (named after the assisting tune in the following pattern: Yin-O, Yin-O, Yin-Yin-O) evolved from Si Gong He Diao and marked the fundamental change in its history. The art moved from countryside yard ground to the teahouses in the cities, and changed from the single or pair performance to the multi-actor performance. Artists used different voices according to their different roles as being the young male character, the young female character, the painted face, the mid-aged male character and the clown. It was greatly enriched with the adoption of such stage properties as a table, two chairs, Xing-Mu (striking wooden block), folding fans and some Chi-Ban and Du-Gu to make time. Most of the early programs were retained; some were revised into long stories such as Child Bride Going Home and Trussing The Buckets. Affinitive tunes like Su Tan, Hu Tan, Yao Tan, Gao Qiang and Luan Tan were transplanted into the art, and so did many programs like Shaving The Both, Reunion At The Nunnery and Dragon Picture Roll. It was not only rich in country flavor, but also elegant and appealing to the audience. This kind of "Di Du Ban (general name of the singing troupes)" went popular around Jiangsu and Zhejiang province. The top troupe Jin Zhi Tang enjoyed high reputation among the audience of the time.

Luo Di Chang Shu of Shenxian County was not content with the popularity in those small and medium sized cities around Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. Finally, it found a place in Shanghai as "Xiao Ge Ban (Mini Singing Group)", and this helped the country tune turn into local opera of Zhejiang Province. Furthermore, within 50 years, it caught on in half China and even frequently went abroad to perform, known as the second major opera in our country.

During this period, another local folk art Xuan Juan was born to join the tides. From "painted Xuan Juan", "Xuan Juan with gong and drum", to Wulin Troupe, it became the local Hangzhou opera on stage. In the mean time, under the influence of the Revoluntion of 1911 and May 4th New Culture Movement, many turned-on forms of art appeared to help urban citizens pursue novelty and escape boredom. For instance, "Xiao Re Hun" could be heard in streets of Hangzhou, "Du Jiao Xi (monodrama)" on stages while "Chang Xin Wen (news-broadcasting through singing)" prevailed around Ningbo and Zhoushan.

In addition, the Zhejiang Tan Huang type of folk art developed quickly in times of Repulic of China. Yuyao Tan Huang, Huzhou Tan Huang, Shaoxing Tan Huang and Ningbo Tan Huang (also known as Chuan Ke Ban), though differ in tunes, were all flexible and abundant in changes. They could be either long or short, extended or truncate, the tones of which could either be melodious or lively accordingly. They were very expressive, typical of the watery region, so they could catch on easily. In order to survive, they too went into cities and brought about the co-existence of Tan Huang (folk art) and Tan Huang Xi (opera). Dafeng, Mogao and Zhenmei say in The Grand Chinese Encyclopedia - Folk Art Column that by the turn from Qing Dynasty and the Republic, mini-type operas thrived and Tan Huang followed the operas to perform in makeup. With the increase of characters and the needs of performance, tunes and music evolved into different groups, such as Su Opera, Yong Opera, Yao Opera, Hu Opera, Xi Opera, Hu Opera. In Zhejiang alone there were three such local operas developed from Yuyao Tan Huang, Huzhou Tan Huang, and Ningbo Tan Huang.