Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, established in 1978, is a professional art performance group under national key protection and support. The first director was YU Zhenfei, a master of Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera art. The present director is GU Haohao, a young Kunqu Opera performer.

The mission of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe is to preserve and pass down the art of Kunqu Opera. Since its establishment, the troupe has revived, arranged, and performed nearly three hundred traditional Kunqu Opera highlights and seventy full-length Kunqu Opera plays. The troupe is devoted to both inheriting tradition and creating new productions. Its opera productions were entitled four times by the Ministry of Culture Key Funded Productions under Excellent Project of National Stage Art and Key Supported Productions under Project of the Creation of and Support for Excellent Works of National Stage Art. The troupe was awarded by the Chinese Opera Society three times and received from the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Theatre Association many national art prizes, including the Best Works Award, Grand Splendor Award, Splendor Award for New Play, China Opera Festival Award and Outstanding Play Award of the Kunqu Opera Art Festival.

The goal of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe is in its artistic pursuit is to produce marvelous plays of excellent performance. The performance of the troupe in the US, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Belgium, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Albania, Singapore, Malaysia, the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, etc. was highly praised and warmly welcomed by audiences at home and abroad and won great reputation on a global scale.