The Dai (Chinese: Dǎizú, 傣族), numbering approximately 1.26 million, are an assemblage of Tai-speaking peoples that together form one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. They are closely related to the Thai and Lao peoples of Thailand and Laos, as well as to the Shan of Burma.

Daiju, which is classified as a form of "minority drama" (shaoshan minzu xiqu, 少數民族戲曲), is most popular in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, as well as in neighboring Baoshan, both prefectures in westernmost Yunnan province, bordering Burma's Kachin and Shan states. It combines traditional Dai music and dance with stories drawn from long narrative poems (敘事長詩) and folk tales (often from Buddhist tradition), blended with elements derived from Han Chinese theatrical traditions including Dianju (滇劇, Yunnan opera), Beijing opera, and piyingxi (皮影戲, shadow puppet plays).

The genre originated in the late Qing Dynasty, when Dai traditional artists and intellectuals worked to translate scripts from Beijing opera, Sichuan opera, and Dianju into the Dai language, creating a new form of theater for Dai people to enjoy. During the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (同治帝, r. 1861-1875), Shang He (尚賀), a resident of Yingjiang County (盈江縣, then known as Ganya, 幹崖), in what is today Dehong Prefecture, drew on old Dai literature to create the first Daiju play, entitled "Xiang Meng" 《相勐》. Around 1880, during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (光緒帝, r. 1875-1908), Dao Yingting (刀盈廷), the chief of Ganya, created the play "Mu Ying Zheng Nan" 《沐英征南》. Around 1910, following his return from Japan, Dao Yingting's son Dao Anren (刀安仁), a shadow puppetry enthusiast who also served as chief of Ganya, formed the first professional Daiju troupe, which had 30 members, and supervised the creation of new plays such as "Lang Huatie" 《朗畫帖》, "Long Gong Bao" 《龍宮保》, and "Lang Gaohan" 《朗高罕》. During this time, the troupe invited Beijing opera and Dianju performers of Han ethnicity as visiting instructors, also sending Daiju performers to Kunming and other cities to receive further instruction in Chinese opera techniques. Upon the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Daiju was developed further, and the first county- and prefecture-level state troupes were organized in the early 1960s, during which decade many new plays were created and arranged. Following the Cultural Revolution, Daiju performances resumed in 1980. In 1987, a Daiju troupe performed outside China for the first time; each of the performances in Burma drew 10,000 people, an unprecedented occurrence. The genre has been described as a "Shining Pearl of Southeast Asia" (東南亞的明珠).

Originally, both male and female roles in Daiju were played by male performers, although, as in Beijing opera, this is no longer the case. Although many of the genre's conventions, such as the male characters' costumes, action scenes, and use of drums, gongs, and cymbals are similar to those of Dianju and Beijing opera, the costumes worn by female characters are of native design, and the vocal style is more or less based on Dai tradition. Dai folk songs and tunes have increasingly been adopted for use as vocal and instrumental melodies, and local instruments such as the hulusi (葫蘆絲, free reed gourd triple pipe), local huqins (vertical fiddles), elephant-foot drum (像腳鼓), Dai gongs, and others have been added to the accompanying ensemble (which had originally comprised only Chinese opera percussion), giving the genre a richer local flavor. The Luxi County Daiju Troupe (潞西縣傣劇團) pioneered the use of string instruments and bamboo flutes, including leading banhu (板胡, high-pitched vertical fiddle with coconut body) along with huluqin (葫蘆琴, plucked lute with bottle gourd-shaped body) and other instruments, but most Daiju troupes today continue to use only percussion for their accompaniment.

In addition to the primary professional troupe, the Dehong Prefecture Daiju Troupe of Mang City, Dehong's capital, most larger Dai villages have at least one amateur Daiju troupe. Daiju is also enjoyed by members of the De'ang (德昂族) and Achang (阿昌族) ethnic groups.

In 2006 Daiju was included in the first batch of 518 traditions inscribed in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China (第一批國家級非物質文化遺產名錄).