A performer responds to comments and questions by netizens. [Photo by Pei Qiang for China Daily]

"The performance is so down-to-earth, which is the Qinqiang Opera of my childhood memory," says Zhang Zhifa, from Tianshui, Gansu, who has been following the troupe online and has witnessed its route to fame.

"I brought my fifth-grade son to experience the intangible cultural heritage," says a man surnamed Li from Lanzhou.