晚清上海梨园之盛, 甲于天下。作为戏曲演出场所, 戏园的基本功能是通过戏曲表演为社会公众提供休闲娱乐服务。时至20世纪初年, 在戏曲改良运动的推动下, 戏曲被赋予开启民智、改良社会的重任, 愈加凸显出社会批判性。以新舞台的建立为标志, 伴随着戏园建筑样式、空间结构、表演方式的变革以及表演剧目的推陈出新, 戏园的整体氛围、社会功能和空间属性都发生了变化, 因之逐渐从一般意义上的娱乐场所转交为批判性的公共空间。

In the late Qing Dynasty the opera house was very popular in Shanghai.As a theatre for traditional Chinese opera performance, its basic function was to provide services of leisure and entertainment for the social public by means of opera performance.Till early years of the 20^thcentury, in the promotion of an opera reform movement the opera was endowed with important tasks of enlightening masses and reforming society, thus giving more prominence to its social critical character.With the setting up of new stages, reforms on a theatre's architectural style, spatial structure and mode of performance, and bringing forth new plays, the theatre's integral atmosphere, social functions and spatial properties all had changes, and consequently it turned itself from an entertainment place in general to a critical public space.