Pssst do you have any other fun facts about Chinese opera for people who haven’t been exposed to much of it?
（Peking Opera performance at the 2014 Chinese New Year Gala)
Hellooooooo~
Oh, goodness, that's a deep well to dive into xD There's a lot to know about Chinese opera.
Chinese opera incorporates every kind of opera that exists in China, pretty much every local region has their own style of Opera, there's about 360 different ones. There's Peking Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera (Shanghai/Shaoxing), Yue Opera (Guangdong province), Yu Opera, Chuan Opera, Kunqu Opera, Ping Opera, the city I'm in (Yangzhou) has Yang Opera, etc.
Out of all of these, the most famous would be Peking Opera (京剧/Jingju), it's recognized nationally as 国粹/Guocui meaning it originated in China and has deep cultural roots, representing a cultural heritage of the people. It has also been recognized by UNESCO as an international Intangible Cultural Heritage.
I'll focus on Peking Opera (my favourites are Peking Opera, Yue Opera (Shanghai/Shaoxing), and Huangmei Opera).
Peking Opera was created in the Qing Dynasty (last imperial dynasty of China). Back then, people in the performing arts were viewed as the lowest tier of society, parents did everything they could to prevent their kids from entering into a profession performing. Only when households were incredibly poor, did kids get "sold" into opera troupes. Yes, sold, like property. These kids would learn various skills like singing, acting, martial arts skills that would be used on stage. It was very brutal, getting up at dawn to practice splits, flips, and teachers back then would hit if you didn't meet their standards. No such thing as child labour laws back then.
There's a saying in China, "台下十年功，台上十分钟", behind the scenes ten years work, on stage ten minutes. Meaning For ten minutes on stage, a performer needed to work and practice for ten years, and this absolutely applied for Opera performers. Even today in China, it's well known that opera performers need decades of work before being able to perform on stage (yes, most opera performers even today got into it as children, not sold into a troupe like in the past, but being signed up for classes when they're very young to practice all the skills needed, kind of like ballerinas, there are certain skills that you just need to practice from young to learn for this artform).
Currently there's several major schools of Peking Opera. This refers to their singing style for particular characters. For example, for characters in the "Dan" category (旦角/Danjue - referring to young woman of wealthier families, elegant and well-mannered) there are 4 major schools:
- Mei School (梅派)
- Cheng School (程派)
- Xun School (荀派)
- Shang School (尚派)
The names refer to the person who created each school:
Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳)
Cheng Yanqiu (程砚秋)
Xun Huisheng (荀慧生)
Shang Xiaoyun (尚小云)
You'll notice these are all men. Back then, women weren't permitted on stage with men, so men took on all roles, include female. This has changed today, so women are able to perform Peking Opera as well.
(Shanghai/Shaoxing Yue Opera (越剧) is the opposite, all the actors are women. Even today, a distinct aspect of Yue Opera is almost all actors are still women, I think there's just 1 or 2 men in the entire country who perform Yue Opera today).
Here's my favourite Yue Opera actor, Wu Fenghua (吴凤花), she plays male roles. Not gonna lie, first time I saw her I thought, "Maybe I'm bi..." xD
Anyway! Back to Peking Opera.
Chinese Opera in general has a lot of rules. How each movement is made, how to walk, talk, sit, etc. There's a lot of mime acting without props. Once you get familiar with the movements, it gets easier to understand stories onstage, otherwise it can be a bit confusing.
The clothing and makeup also have a lot of rules. There are certain characters who always wear similar clothing regardless of which troupe is performing.
For Peking Opera, characters are also split into categories based on gender, age, societal rank, etc. For example:
Dan characters (旦角) are young women, married or unmarried. Dan characters facial make up are pale-faced, black brows, full black eyeliner around the eyes slanted upwards, red lips.
Within the Dan category there's a further breakdown:
Qingyi (青衣) or Zhengdan (正但) are young women coming from wealthy families, they hold themselves elegantly and are well-mannered.
This is Yang Yuhuan (杨玉环), a Qingyi/Zhengdan. She was a famous concubine of the Tang Dynasty. That large headpiece along with the elaborate robes depicts she's part of the royal family. The white sleeves are called "water sleeves" (水袖) and can be unfolded to emphasize movements, emotions, etc.
Wudan (武但) are young women who are skilled at fighting.
This is Mu Guiying (穆桂英), a famous female general of the Song Dynasty. Those two long feathers on her headpiece, the 4 flags on her back, the flag she's holding, all depict she's a general. As an audience, even if you don't know the character, this outfit would clue you in that she's high-ranked in the military.
Next we have a Huadan (花旦), young women who are lively, slightly younger than Qingyi/Zhengdan maybe, not quite as elegant. She's flamboyant, has her hair in an updo, lots of vibrant accessories, etc. This character is Hongniang (红娘), a maid who plays matchmaker for the family's young daughter. Because the daughter fell in love with a poor scholar, her mom refuses to let them meet, but Hongniang skillfully finds ways to get them together. She's outgoing, fun, lots of energy.
Here we have a Qingyi/Zhengdan character. She's wearing all black, minimal hair accessories, very simply clothing, this tells us she's a widow.
Next to her, is a Laosheng (老生), a man who's usually middle-aged (middle-aged in this case being like...~30 and up). Laosheng's makeup looks very similar to the Dan makeup, pale-faced, black brows, black full eyeliner slanted upwards, they have this pink area right in between the eyes going up the middle of their forehead, and always has a long beard.
(In this show, this dude is actually her husband. She thought he was ded, that's why she's wearing the widow outfit, he sneaks back home but she doesn't recognized him and he starts flirting with her to see if she's still faithful to him -__- Like dude, you're supposedly ded, leave her alone.)
Here we have another Laosheng, same make-up as the guy above, with the beard. That fan in his hand tells me this character is Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮), a famous Prime Minister during the Three Kingdoms period. His character always has that fan, and pretty much always wears this outfit.
Next we have a Xiaosheng (小生), these are young men, married or unmarried. Their makeup is similar to Laosheng except no beard.
Here we have a Wusheng (武生), a male character skilled at fighting. Again, you can see he's got the 4 flags on his back, he has a spear in one hand, and that thing in his other hand with all those tassles that symbolizes a horse whip. So he's riding a horse here.
The next category is Hualian (花脸), super recognizable xDD Their makeup is all colours of the rainbow, and it always covers the entire face. They also always have a long beard.
Hualian characters are usually quick-tempered, boisterous, not the scholarly type. The colours and patterns depict the personality of the characters.
Pic 1) Baogong (包公), a famous judge of the Song Dynasty, famed for being just and unbending to attempts at bribery or pressure from the rich and powerful. His face is mostly patterned with black. Black depicts fierce honesty, righteousness, incorruptable.
Pic 2) Guanyu (关羽), a famous general of the Three Kingdoms period (you might've seen statues of him in shops in Chinatown, he's always red-faced with a long beard). His face pattern is mostly red, red depicts loyalty, honesty, a fierce warrior.
Pic 3) Caocao (曹操), a famous...I don't know how to categorize him but he's from the Three Kingdoms period too. His facial pattern is mostly white, white depicts villainy, treachery, paranoia/suspiscious.
So through the colours and patterns of someone's Hualian we know what kind of character they are, even if you don't know the story.
These guys are Choujue (丑角), their makeup is always a patch of white in the centre of the face. These characters are usually for comedic effect.
There's other character categories too, but these are some of the main ones ^^;;
I love going to watch Opera in theatre, everytime it's super exciting. Around Chinese new year they tend to have a lot of performances, and I was in Beijing this past CNY, so I managed to catch 4 shows in the span of 3 weeks xD
I already have 2 more tickets for May, lollllllll. I've loved Chinese Opera since I was really young, like...elementary school I remember going to Chinatown to buy VHS tapes of Chinese Opera movies. Back then I didn't know much about them, just though the songs sounded nice and the clothing and set designs were pretty. I really got into it when I turned 13. An older Chinese friend of my mom's heard I liked watching Chinese Opera and lent me a VHS of the Chinese New Year Chinese Opera Gala. It's a gala they hold every year on CNY with just Chinese Opera performances of all different types. That was the first time I got exposed to the different styles (I still have that tape).
Unfortunately I never found any live performances outside of China, so this time when I came back I decided to get my fill xDD
Anyway, I hope that was helpful!! If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know :D
Yaoruo..... for Du Ruo she's stuck in this weird space between moving on and still clinging to Xu since Yao is not Xu at all, but she also is because to Du Ruo more than anyone she's so defined in her differences from Xu. She simultaneously sees Xu in Yao and can't see Xu in Yao no matter how hard she looks 😭
And then you have Yao and how ???? it must be to want Du Ruo the way that she does. She can never be Xu, is slowly learning to be herself and what that even means when everything about her is born from a merger of these two great legdnds. But now here she is with Du Ruo and she can't even figure out if these are her feelings or not. Is this her chasing Xu? How fucked is it that the only person who sees her besides Chief only sees her because she will never be 😭 and how awful is it that despite knowing ehat Du Ruo is looking for she wants her so bad that even this is enough 😭
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