In arid and semiarid regions of northwestern China, where evaporation exceeds precipitation, perforated plastic mulches are widely used to decrease soil water evaporation. To determine the effects of various perforated plastic mulches on soil water evaporation after irrigation, a soil column experiment was conducted, which consisted of six mulches with different perforated rates and four levels of irrigation, and the soil water evaporation from each soil column was measured. The results showed that with 100% perforated mulch, the cumulative evaporation was 2.8-48.5 times higher than that of the control, and increased with increasing irrigation amount. There was a linear relationship between cumulative evaporation and time, which followed the Gardner's theory of bare soil evaporation. A three-factor (evaporation time, perforated rate and irrigation amount) function of cumulative evaporation and the functions of relative cumulative evaporation and cumulative evaporation per unit hole area film were established, which fitted the observed data very well.