Peking Opera

Year：2006

Sort：Traditional Opera

Area：Central Government,Beijing,Tianjin, Liaoning,Shanghai, Shandong

Serial No.：Ⅳ-28

Declarer：China Peking Opera Theatre, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Liaoning andShandong Provinces

Although there are more than 360 ancient local operas in China, Peking Opera is known as China's national opera, despite its comparatively young 200-year history.

Although it is called Peking Opera, the origins of Peking Opera are not in Beijing but in the provinces of Anhui (East China) and Hubei (South-central China). Its rise is due in great part to the patronage of the imperial royalties.
Peking Opera is a purely Chinese opera form dating back to the year 1790, when the famous FourAnhui Opera Troupes first came to Beijing in celebration of the 80th birthday of EmperorQianlong(1711-1799) of theQing Dynasty(1644-1911). The tour was a hit and the troupes stayed. In 1828, some famous Hubei Opera Troupe players came to Beijing.

The artists of Hubei and Anhui troupes often jointly performed on stage and absorbed repertoires, music, arias and performance techniques from each other and from other operas like Kun Qu, Qin Qiang and Bang Zi, as well as the local dialect and customs of Beijing. Its repertoires mainly depict fairy tales of preceding dynasties and important historical events.

It was after 1840 that Peking Opera formally took shape, growing even faster during the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who was an opera aficionado. Classic Peking Opera repertoires and the names of the first-generation masters were on the lips of people in Beijing, and eventually prevalent around the country.

Ⅰ. Main Features

Unlike European operas, which usually concentrate on one kind of performance in one stage representation, Peking Opera integrates music, singing, dance, costume art, makeup, acting andacrobaticsinto a unique whole.

1. Roles

Peking Opera Roles include sheng (male role), dan (female role), jing (painted-face male role), and chou (comedic male role), distinguished on the basis of sex, age, and personality.

Sheng (male role) is divided intolao sheng, xiao sheng and wu sheng, respectively representing a decent middle-aged man, a young man, and a male role who can fight.
Dan (female role) is divided into qing yi, wu dan, hua dan and lao dan, respectively representing a middle-aged woman who always acts as a Mrs. or Miss from a noble family, a woman who can fight, a young girl maid, and an aged woman.

Jing (painted-face role) refers to the male roles with all kinds of painted-faces and acts to show a particular personality.

Chou (comic role which means clown), a wise and funny man usually with a low social status, is divided into wen chou and wu chou. The former can read and write well, and the latter can fight.
2.. Facial Make-up

Facial Make-up (Lianpu) in Peking Opera is mostly applied to the male roles of jing and chou, with particular styles to symbolize the different personalities, characteristics, and fates of the roles.

Some people argue that the facial make-up is similar to the mask. Nevertheless, there are great differences between the two in that masks are separate from the face.

Different make-up colors symbolize different personalities:

Red -- brave, faithful and wise men, with utter devotion
Purple -- wise, brave and steadfast men
Black - upright, outspoken, and never stooping to flattery
Blue -- brave, upright and outspoken men, but obstinate and unruly
Green -- hero of the bush, chivalrous but with a testy temper
Yellow -- valiant but ferocious military men or crafty civil officers
White - insidious and treacherous
Gold & silver -- mysterious monsters or gods

3. Costumes

PekingOpera Costumes, mainly made of satin, crepe and silk and decorated with various meticulously embroidered patterns, tell a character's sex and status at first glance, marking off people from all walks of life, noble or humble, civil or military. They primarily designate his or her role on the stage regardless of time and space. For instance, an imperial robe is suitable to any emperor in all dynasties, from the remote to the near ancient times.

Accessories, including helmets and hats, constitute an integral part to bring about dramatic stage effects.

4. Basic Skills

Peking Opera Basic Skills include dance movements and special acrobatic movements while singing or reciting, a necessary requirements mastered by all actors and actresses.
Lingze skills involve the manipulation of the two long pheasant tail feathers worn on warriors' helmets, such as shaking andswinging. Together with head and body movements, the shaking of the feathers expresses emotions such as surprise, hatred, happiness, and frivolity.

Bazi skills are combat skills, falling into three categories: the use of long weapons like broadsword, long-handled spear and staff; the use of short weapons like sword and dagger; and the use of one's bare hands. Combat can be either serious or funny, but both should be emotional and rhythmical.

Cap-wing skills involve the manipulation of wings of the gauze cap. With the neck as the axis, the actor moves the wings of the cap up and down, twirls them, or moves them to the left or right, or from the front to the back. Sometimes, he makes just one of the wings move. The actor makes them move or stop moving to indicate contradictory feelings, hesitation, or sudden joy.

'Beard skills' refer to the manipulation of beards, including ways of pushing, pulling, holding up, spreading, tearing, throwing, shaking, circling, and blowing, to express a variety of feelings. Some of these actions are done at the same time.

'Fan skills' help express many situations. As a special property, the fan can be used almost by all roles, especially popular among xiao sheng (a young man) and hua dan (a young girl maid).

'Hair-swinging skills' are special techniques for a male role to express his abnormal feelings, such as fear, sadness, hatred, or agony amidst death throes. The techniques include swinging, circling, twisting, and spreading over the face or up in the air.

'Sleeve skills' are the lavish, dance-like movements made with flowing sleeves, with dozens of styles likened to clouds, flowing water, cotton fields, waves, wheels, and towers. Sleeves whirled in a wheel-like or flying movement exaggerate the feelings of characters. Holding up, spreading, throwing, shaking, and flicking are most popular movements.

'Tanzi skills', or carpet skills, usually go with movements like somersaults, leaps, jumps, and falls which are mostly carried out on a carpet or rug.

'Waist and leg skills' include somersaults, swaying from right to left and from left to right, kicks, leg stretches and pulls, and upward straightened leg movements. Dances and acrobatics call for supple waists, so that the performers can control their center of gravity.

Ⅱ.Mei Lanfang

To opera aficionados, the name Mei Lanfang is synonymous with Peking Opera. During the three decade boom of Peking Opera since the 1920s, when varied schools took shape, the Four Great Dan Actors emerged, and Mei was the most outstanding of the four.

In the early period, women were not allowed to perform on the opera stage with men. Hence, men played the female roles, called Dan.