Chinese Opera

By Aaron Potter and Valerie Oresko

• Chinese opera includes a mix of song, speech, mime, dance, and acrobatics (Wang-Ngai 3).

• Chinese opera “presents rather than reproduces the story,” using conventions (such as waving a tasseled whip to indicate riding a horse, walking in a circle around the stage to indicate a long journey, using a table and two chairs to indicate a mountain, etc.) to symbolize what is happening. Unlike Western drama, it focuses more on symbolism rather than on realism (Wang-Ngai 3).
• Chinese opera is very minimalist in the area of sets and props. Instead, it focuses heavily on make-up and costumes which indicate to the audience what sort of character an actor is playing. “The inner hearts if these characters are painted on their faces, as are their specific identities” (Wang-Ngai 4).

• In Chinese opera, stories are usually well known to the audience in advance and are generally attended to see how well a favorite part is executed (Wang-Ngai 4).
• The elements of Chinese opera go back thousands of years. Ritual dance performances occurred during religious ceremonies as early as the Shang Dynasty (1767 BC — 1030 BC) and dance was being used to tell stories at festivals already during the Zhou Dynasty (1030 BC — 221 BC) (pg. xi, 4). What we typically think of as true Chinese opera and see in Boxers & Saints is known as Peking opera and was not fully formed until the Qing Dynasty (1644 AD — 1911 AD). During the Communist cultural revolution in the 60's and 70’s, traditional theater was banned as elitist. A more modernized version became popular for a time, but after the end of the cultural revolution the traditional styles came back and are still popular today. However, many modern young people grew up with less of an orientation to opera than their ancestors had, so the art form’s popularity has suffered (Wang-Ngai xi, 9–10).
• Chinese opera characters are grouped into four main role types: the female, the male, the painted face (powerful, dramatic characters whose faces are heavily painted), and the clown (speak in the vernacular and symbolized by a spot of white make-up in the middle of the face). Each group contains various subgroups. Every actor specializes in a single role type, each of which and each subgroup of which has distinct costumes and make-up and distinct ways of singing, speaking, and moving (Wang-Ngai 5, 33–37).

Role Types:

• Female/Dan: young maiden, private-quarters woman, lively maiden, old woman, warrior woman, weapon and horse woman (more elegant, important warrior symbolized by pennants), etc.

• Male/Sheng: young man, old man, close-combat warrior (no armor, very acrobatic), armored warrior (more powerful warrior symbolized by armor and pennants), etc.

• Painted Face/Jing: general, powerful villain, supernatural being, etc.

• Clown/Chou: comic relief, mean-spirited villain, etc.

• Traditionally, women did not act in operas but were impersonated by men. Today, however, female roles are played by women (Wang-Ngai 9).
• Peking opera is largely concerned with “historical and legendary stories that emphasized virtue, courage, and loyalty” and are generally pretty patriotic (Wang-Ngai 13).
• Though Peking opera is the most widespread and well known type of Chinese opera, there are over 300 different regional styles of opera. Different styles are generally distinguished by their type of music and by their dialect. However, they all share much in common: a focus on role types, conventions, make-up, costumes, a mix of artistic elements, etc. (Wang-Ngai 13).
• Operas involve a great deal of music played by fiddles, banjos, lutes, pipes, drums, cymbals, gongs, clappers, etc. (Wang-Ngai 30–32).

Here is a link to the full performance of a modern example of Peking opera (I do not know which one, the title only says that is is the anniversary performance of the theater’s first show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN6Trv9VJys. Click around in it a bit just to get an idea of the look and sound of a real Chinese opera. A few you might find interesting: a very acrobatic fight scene around 1:05:00, a horse journey using the above mentioned tasseled whips around 1:18:30, an example of the painted face and clown roles around 1:39:40, some generally impressive acrobatics around 1:52:40, and some singing around 2:12:10.

Works Cited:

Wang-Ngai, Siu, and Peter Lovrick. Chinese Opera: Images and Stories. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997. Print.