Tea-picking opera originated as Gannan cai cha xi (贛南採茶戲) in Ganzhou (贛州市), a city in southern Jiangxi province bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west, during the Qing Dynasty, its melodies deriving from the folk tradition of the "tea-picking lantern" dance (cai cha deng, 採茶燈). Other locally specific varieties of tea-picking opera exist in other parts of Jiangxi province as well as other nearby provinces of southern China.

Fuzhou tea-picking opera, whose birthplace is the following four counties: Yihuang (宜黃), 臨川, 崇仁, and 樂安, was originally called sanjiao ban (三腳班) due to the fact that it originally had only three role types , although it was later influenced by Beijing opera and the number of role types increased.

In 2011 tea-picking opera was included on the first batch of the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China.