【Objective】 Phenolic acids are present in almost all plant-derived foods, and are associated with the organoleptic and nutritional properties of foods. A high-performance liquid chromatography-photo-diode array (HPLC-PDA) method was established for the simultaneous detection of eight phenolic acids in bamboo shoots: 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, syringaldehyde, ferulic acid and 3-hydroxycinnamic acid. 【Method】 Eight phenolic acids were separated on a Symmetry C18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm). Acetonitrile (phase A) and 0.5% acetic acid solution (phase B) were used as the mobile phase, the injection volume was 10 μL, and the detection wavelength was 275 nm. The analysis was performed at 30 ℃ with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. 【Result】 Eight phenolic acids were successfully separated (resolution>1.5), and had a good linear relationship (R ≥ 0.999 0) with a linear range of 1.0-50.0 μg/mL. The detection limits (S/N=3) were 0.12-0.69 μg/mL and the quantification limits (S/N=10) were 0.36-2.08 μg/mL. Precision, repeatability, and stability tests yielded relative standard deviations (RSD) of <5%. Additionally, the recoveries of phenolic acids were 80.99%-129.12%, and the RSD values associated with the recoveries were also <5%. The phenolic acid contents in the actual samples of Pleioblastus amarus bamboo shoots and Arundinaria acerba bamboo shoots were determined using an established method. The contents of eight phenolic acids in the actual bamboo shoots samples varied from (9.35±0.08) to (38.60±0.12) mg/kg. A comparative analysis of phenolic acids in P. amarus bamboo shoots grown under a shading treatment and normal conditions was conducted based on this method. Compared to the shoots grown under normal conditions, the contents of six phenolic acids in P. amarus bamboo shoots grown under the shading treatment were lower, and the content of total detected phenolic acids decreased by 46.2%.【Conclusion】 The method developed here is simple, sensitive, accurate and reliable, and is suitable for determining phenolic acids in bamboo shoots. The results showed that a shading treatment downregulated the accumulation of phenolic acids in P. amarus bamboo shoots.