Acoustics of traditional Chinese courtyard theatrical buildings

The traditional Chinese theatrical building is unique in the world architectural history,and very different from the modern theatres.As the traditional theatre plays on the imagination with lesser reliance on visual realism,therefore it can be performed on a small pavilion stage.The courtyard theatre was the most common type existing,some acoustical features in such unroofed spaces were studied and presented in this paper.Discussed are(1) acoustic effect of pavilion stage for singing performance;(2) reverbrance in the unroofed space;(3) effect of sound strength (loudness)distribution in the audience area for different layout spaces;(4) preference of different band positions on sound effects in the audience area;(5) the mystery of the sounding vessels beneath the stage.