Here’s something neat to learn on Saturday!
My character in the center is wearing some funny sleeves, but why? Everyone knows the woman on the left; she’s on posters all over the world, and in trailers at the theater. But what’s with those sleeves? Those are a specific garment from ancient China called, shuǐxiù (水袖), water sleeves, and a part of performance culture that dates back to the Han Dynasty. The Shen Yun advertisements weren’t joking when they said they dance through “5000 Years of Culture”!
Shuixiu became popular in the Ming Dynasty, seen as a form of refinement and status, but they were mainly seen in Chinese Opera known as kunqu. The most notable kunqu around the world is The Peony Pavilion; featuring the couple pictured on the right. Both men and women characters wore the shuixiu, and kunqu traditionally used no props or stage decor. It was up to the actors to convey ALL of the setting, atmosphere, and feeling, with only their voice, and their movements. That’s where those long sleeves came in handy! (Pun intended.) They became an inseparable part of the actors’ expression, like in this iconic scene, “The Interrupted Dream”.
So now we see the echoes of this ancient piece of clothing in performance arts like Shen Yun, and now you know where they came from! As for my character, she may not be a dancer or an actress, but her shuixiu are as inseparable from her as shuixiu are from beloved ancient Chinese culture.
