Quanzhou puppet shows have accumulated more than 700 plays for its repertoires through thousands of years. One of the traditional plays "Mulian saving her mother" usually lasts for seven days and nights. The Quanzhou puppet show still keeps its own music, named "Kuilei melody", including more than 300 tunes, as well as corresponding performing skills of ancient musical instruments, which is unique in all types of puppet shows in China. Quanzhou puppet shows also boast a complete set of exquisite and mature string skills, and high artistic accomplishment in puppet carving.

Traditional troupes in Quanzhou still maintain the ancient folk customs in marriage, funeral, and religious activities. Some vocabularies, ancient slangs in the minnan dialect, as well as precious illustrations, music scores and performing techniques from the Song and Yuan Dynasties can also be found in a Quanzhou puppet show.

Usually puppeteers are closely related with religious activities. Most of them hold concurrent posts as witchmen. For common people, a puppeteer's social status is even higher than performers in other dramas, which have to give way to puppet shows if they start at the same time. Puppet shows in Fujian Province originated in the Tang Dynasty, and won great popularity in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since then, puppet shows have been extolled as the highest among all types of folk drama. Puppeteers gain respect for taking part in religious activities, and are also addressed by local residents as "masters" rather than "actors".

As Quanzhou puppet shows bear rich religious colors, puppeteers are familiar with the procedure of Taoist liturgy, and some Taoists or monks also became puppet experts. As a result, Taoist music and "Kuilei melody", the accompaniment to puppet shows, interact with each other and share many similarities.

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