Chinese Traditional Performance

Beijing Opera or Peking Opera is regarded as the national opera in China for it has a long history and a complete system of stage performance. It was originally a local drama in Anhui Province . As the story goes, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty fell interested in the local drama during his inspecstion of the Southern China in disguise. To celebrate his 80th birthday in 1790, he summoned opera troupes from different areas around China to perform for him in Beijing . After the celebration, four famous troupes from Anhui Provinces were asked to stay, for audiences were particularly pleased with their beautiful melodies, colorful costumes and interesting facial patterns. Gradually it replaced Kunqu Opera which had been popular in the palace and among the upper ranks in Beijing . Later, some troupes from Hubei Province came to Beijing and often performed together with the Anhui troupes. The two types of singing blended on the same stage and gradually gave birth to a new genre that was known as Beijing Opera. Beijing Opera absorbed various elements of its forerunners, such as singing, dancing, mimicry and acrobatics, and adapted itself in language and style of singing to Beijing audiences. As time went by, its popularity spread all over the country, becoming the most popular and influencing dramatic form on Chinese stage.

The characters of Beijing Opera are distinguishes according to sex, age and disposition. They are known as Sheng, Dan, Jing and Chou. Female roles are called Dan which is further divided into Laodan, the elderly and dignified woman; Qingyi, aristocratic lady in elegant costumes; Daomadan, horsewoman and warriors; and Choudan, the wife of the role of Chou, and sometimes shrewd and dangerous woman. The interesting thing is that the role of Dan used to be performed by male actors. Mei Lanfang, For instance, one of the famous Beijing Opera actors, is famed for his Dan role. Male roles in Beijing Opera are Sheng and Chou. The former are usually scholars, and officials, while the latter are clowns who can be easily recognized by their distinguished facial pattern. Sheng roles can be further divided into Laosheng and Xiaosheng, the former is old man wearing long beards and the latter young man singing falsetto voice. In addition, there are Wensheng and Wusheng. The former are scholars and officials, and the latter are military officials in battle scene and well-trained in acrobatics. As to the Chou or Clowns, are usually foolish, awkward or stingy people.

The elaborate and gorgeous facial make-up and costumes are two distinguished characteristics of Beijing Opera. The audience can know what kind of character the role is from the colors and patterns. Generally speaking, red faces have the positive meaning symbolizing the brave, upright and wise men. Another positive color is purple. Black faces usually have neutral meaning, representative the just men and uprightness. Blue and green also have neutral meanings that symbolize the hero from the bushes. Meanwhile, the yellow and white represent the crafty men with negative meaning. Performers have gold or silver facial make-up standing for the monsters or Gods. Good-nature people are usually painted with relatively simple colors while make-up of hostile and doubtful characters, such as bandits, robbers, rebels and alike, bear complex marks. The costuming of Beijing is based mainly on the court and civil costumes of the Ming Dynasty style, with frequent uses of deep red, green, yellow, white black and blue. Strong contrasting colors are freely used, and embroidered in gold, sliver and colored threads. The rules for costumes are strictly based on rank, occupation and life style, and there are special costume with different colors and designs for each role.

The tunes of Beijing Opera are mainly composed of two styles, Erhuang and Xipi. The former originated in Hui tune in Anhui Province while the latter resulting from Han tune in Hubei Province . They are used according to the actions in different scenes. Generally speaking, Xipi tune is employed in lighter scenes while Erhuang for dramatic actions. Surely, some other tunes are also employed for different purpose. The singing in Beijing Opera is highly stylized but its variation of rhythm and pitch enable the actors and actresses to express the thoughts and emotions of different characters in different situations. There are two forms of recitatives in dialogue and monologue. Yunbai is the rhythmic vernacular and Jingbai is the capital vernacular, which is used to better characterize the personalities. Acting in Beijing Opera includes a set of movements, gesture and expressions. Every movement or pose, such as stroking a beard, setting a hat straight, swinging a sleeve or lifting a foot, has its own formula or pattern.

The most important musical instruments used in Beijing Opera is Jinghu, a kind of two-stringed fiddle followed by Erhu, also a two-stringed fiddle but in a softer tune. Other instruments are Yueqin, Pipa and Suona, etc. The percussion instruments are Gongs and drums of different sizes, and castanets made of wood and bamboo. The castanets play an important role in making the temper, they serve as the time-beater, and the whole band is virtually directed by them. With the aid of Gongs and drums, they beat the tempo for the actor, regulate his motions, and give him cues and so on.

The art of illusion and imagination is one of Beijing Opera's most important features, expressed through exaggeration and concentration. Background and props are kept to a minimum and remain simple, usually a table and two chairs in front of a big curtain. Performers use gesture and body language to represent actions such as opening or closing the door, going up or down a building or a mountain, and embarking, disembarking or traveling by boat. A decorated whip represents s horse, a paddle a boat and two pennants embroidered with wheels a carriage. When the actor walks in a circle, it means that he is in a long journey. Four generals and four soldiers represent an army. Two actors can portray groping and fighting dark through dance and acrobatics on a brightly lit stage. By such techniques, Beijing Opera has made it possible to transform a small stage into the whole universe.

Kunqu Opera first appeared in late Yuan Dynasty ( 1271A .D. -1368A .D.) some 600 years ago in the lower reaches of Yangtze River . It was one of the earliest genres of drama and named for its birthplace, Kunshan, near the city of Suzhou in today's Jiangsu Province. The opera reached its heyday during the reign of Qinglong in Qing Dynasty. Kunqu Opera is famous for its gentle and clear vocals, beautiful and refined tunes, and the perfect combination of dance and acrobatic performances. The music is much softer and the dialogue is more poetic and refined. The dance and movement of a role is gentle and closely connected with singing. The musical instruments used in Kunqu Opera are distinguished from Beijing Opera. In order to match the poetry style of the play perfectly, flute is widely used as the accompanying instrument instead of instruments with strings. Boasting for its time-honored history and all-around skills, Kunqu Opera is considered as the mother of many other traditional operas, influencing Beijing Opera. It was awarded as one of 19 ‘Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity' by UNESCO in May 2001.

In the early days, the songs were composed of many long and short lines. The singer sang solo, and the orchestra, basically percussion instrument, only came in at the end of each line. Later, Kunqu music was reformed by famous musician Wei Liangfu, the forefather of Kunqu, in the mid-16th century. After his refinement, Kunqu became milder, smoother and more graceful. Performers began to attach more importance to clear recitation, correct singing and pure tunes. The composers wrote the musical scores after working out the tunes, and the songs were written in seven-character or ten-character lines. The accompaniment began to employ stringed instruments, bamboo flutes as well as drums and clappers.

The roles of Kunqu are mainly divided into seven categories, including Sheng (male roles), Dan (female roles), Jing (painted face), Mo (middle-aged male roles), Chou (clowns), Wai and Tie, and each category has further subdivisions. The Sheng roles, for example, have Laosheng (aged male roles), Wusheng (male warriors), and Xiaosheng (young male roles), each of which are further divided. Xiaosheng, the young male role, is divided into Daguansheng (big hat role), Xiaoguansheng (small hat role), Jinsheng (kerchief role), Giongsheng (pauper role) and Zhiweisheng (a warrior whose helmet decorated by a pheasant tail feather).

The Kunqu style of stage makeup is mainly used for Jing and Chou roles, and occasionally for Sheng and Dan roles. The three predominant colors are red, white and black. The shades of blue, green, purple and gold are used to portray forest brigands, or ghosts and demons. As in Beijing Opera, the color red represents loyalty and justice, black conveys uprightness and straightforwardness, white signifies cunning and shrewdness, and yellow indicates a fierce, tough character. Most of the patterns and techniques of Beijing Opera facial makeup evolved from Kunqu.

arrying forward the tradition of ancient poetry and common speech, Kunqu is of very grate literary value for its rich traditional repertoire. Most of the stories of Kunqu Opera are love romances. It seldom has too many military roles or acrobatic part in a play. The representative works are The Peony Pavilion , the Palace of Eternal Youth , Fifteen Strings of Cash and so on.