"Er Ren Tai" is a small local opera originating in Hequ and spreading in northern Jin, western Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi, and Zhangjiakou, Hebei. It belongs to the "two small" operas in terms of performance program. The roles of the clowns or the clowns and the clowns are only two, and the performances are vivid and lively, and the singing is free and unrestrained, euphemistic and fluent, which is very popular among the general public. The two-man stage was initially developed on the basis of folk songs. Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty, the New Year's festivals, some of the red-hot people get together, in the house, courtyard, the village, the square for the stalls singing, are the Hequ folk songs of the small songs and tunes, this entertainment is commonly known as the "meditation cavity". To the early years of the Qing Xianfeng, this "sitting cavity" absorbed the sister arts in the rice-planting songs, stilts, dry boat, Daoxiang and other artistic nutrients, the development of a number of dance movements, by the two roles of the Dan and ugly one into a retreat to walk the field performances. On New Year's Day, people gathered around the fire dragon (fire), and the actors and bands performed in the field, which was called "turning the fire dragon" by the local people. To the Qing Dynasty Tongzhi years (1862 to 1864), due to the Hequ the vast number of hardworking people forced by life "to go to the West", this art form to the mouth outside, absorbing and melting the music and language of the Inner Mongolia folk songs and theatrical make-up and other specialties, so that there has been a new development, becoming a local opera with the prototype of the opera.
The traditional repertoire of Er Rantai has about 120 plays, the contents of which are mostly based on the real life of the working people and are rich in life interest. It can be divided into two categories: "hard-coded plays" and "plays with whips". "Hard-coded plays" emphasize singing, reading and doing, highlighting the role of performance, such as "Going to the West" and "Visiting the Sick". The "opera with a whip" is full of songs and dances, songs and dances, such as "Hanging the Red Lantern", "Playing Money", etc. Its content is mostly the expression of farm life. Its content is mostly the expression of farm life and love life
The music of the two-people stage is divided into two parts: the cavity and the card song. The cantata is mostly composed of folk songs, and some of them have been processed with various speed changes and have become board-formatized. The music is basically instrumentalized on the basis of folk songs. In addition, it has absorbed and borrowed from the ancient songs and folk music, making it more and more rich. When playing and accompanying, there are mainly instruments such as yangqin, flute, sihu, erhu, and four tiles. The music is characterized by beautiful, fresh, beautiful and bright.