Culture lesson-Facial Makeup In Beijing Opera Of China

About 200 years ago, the Qing Emperor Qianlong toured in southern Chinaand developed an interest in the local operas. On his 80th birthday, he let local opera groups come to Beijing to perform for him. Some remained in Beijing after the celebration. The ones from Anhui and Hubei were incorporated with the palace opera and Kunqu Opera, which formed the Peking Opera.

Chinese opera performers mainly have two methods of makeup: masks and facial painting.

On April 25th, 2012, we had a cultural lesson about how to paint the Lianpu.

First, our magic introduced some history about Beijing Opera and Lianpu to us.

And then we watched something interesting about Chinese changing faces. The frequent on-stage change of masks, without the audience noticing, is a special technique, that’s changing faces. But from the beginning till now, except the teachers and students, no one can know how to change the face so quickly, so for normal Chinese people, the skill of change of masks also is a secret.

Let’s start to paint our own Lianpu now~!

Different color, different faces~! Haha ^_^ our students came from Chinese academy and English department were so earnest!

Actually，Lianpu originated from daily life experience, so it can represent different characters. Red, yellow, white, black, purple, green and silver are the main colors used for facial designs For instance, red stands for loyal, brave and upright people; white for sinister and cunning officials; and golden and silvery colors for gods and ghosts. For mood and the health, the white color means fear, red for shyness, dark for suntan, and sallow for illness.

Show time~!

In the past, both Dan and Sheng roles were played by male actors, but now they also can be played by female. It is necessary to see Peking Opera while you are in China, especially in Beijing，just as seeing an opera while in Italy or Sydney.