|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Beijing
Opera and Facial Makeup |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Beijing Opera
Beijing Opera, a major Chinese theatrical form, enjoys great popularity
both at home and abroad. To many foreign theatergoers, it is almost
synonymous with China's classical theatre. Beijing Opera is, indeed,
the most representative of all Chinese traditional dramatic art forms.
Peking opera of China is a national treasure with a history of 200
years. In the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing
Dynasty
(1790), the four big Huiban opera Troupes entered the capital
and combined with Kunqu opera, Yiyang opera, Hanju opera and Luantan
in
Beijing's theatrical circle of the time. Through a period of more
than half a century of combination and integration of various kinds
of opera there
evolved the present Peking opera, the biggest kind
of opera in China, whose richness of repertoire, great number of artists
of performance and of
audiences, and profound influence are incomparable
in China.
Beijing is an ingenious combination of elements from many sources:
traditional Chinese music, poetry, singing, recitation, dancing, acrobatics
and martial arts, all blended into one great theatrical art to represent
a story or depict different characters and their feelings of gladness,
anger,
sorrow, happiness, surprise, fear and sadness. In Peking opera
there are four main types of roles: sheng (male), dan (young female),
jing
(painted face, male), and chou (clown, male or female). The characters
may be loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, their
images
being vividly manifested.
Since Mei Lanfang, the grand master of Peking opera, visited Japan
in 1919, Peking opera has become more and more popular with people
all
over the world, and it has made an excellent contribution to cultural
exchange between China and the West, to friendly association and to
improvement of solidarity.
Facial Makeup of Beijing Opera
The facial makeup is a special design on the face of Beijing opera actors and actresses. It is characterized by exquisite patterns of bright colors
and fine, smooth lines applied by painting with brush and rubbing by hand to achieve artistic exaggeration. The colorful, varied patterns for the
painted face roles show the noble and humble, the beautiful and ugly, the good and evil, and the loyal and treacherous. They are in sharp contrast
with the plain, neat facial designs of the sheng (the male) and dan (the female) roles, thus producing a strong aesthetic effect, different roles in
Beijing opera-sheng, dan, jing (the male with a painted face), and chou (the clown)-have different facial makeups.
Home 
