Beijing Opera

The unique tradition of Beijing opera faces an uncertain future, threatened with the more immediate appeal of popular Chinese and Western culture.

The art of opera   Masks and costumes   Intricate acting   The players
Patterns of behavior     The art of seeing      Modern competition

Beijing Opera  is one of China's most recent theatrical forms, although it draws from a tradition extending back at least as far as the twelfth century, when opera was performed in the huge public theaters of Hangzhou, then capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1179-1276). The most popular theatrical form at the time was the southern play  in which the dialogue, written in rhymed verse, was either sung or spoken. The three extant southern play scripts, composed by anonymous writing societies, have no internal divisions, such as acts or scenes, and, according to contemporaneous descriptions, were performed with a string and wind orchestra, and an offstage chorus which accompanied the major arias, evidently along with the audience.

The art of opera

    The four main elements of Beijing opera are song, dialogue, mime and acrobatics - disciplines normally separated in European theatre. According to the particular form of Beijing opera, music and song might be predominant, or sometimes mime. Other pieces might feature Chinese acrobatic fight scenes, while in some the spoken word gets centre stage.

    The main division is between civilian plays and military dramas, but there are also comedies and skits. Civilian plays pieces are more like Western drama, and describe daily life. The military drama, on the other hand, consist mainly of fights, and tell of historical wars and battles, making great use of acrobatics.

    Many Beijing operas draw upon popular legends, folk or fairy tales, or classical literature; tales such as The Three Kingdoms, The Dream of the Red Chamber, or Journey to the West are much better known in China than their equivalent literary classics in the west.

    Beijing opera orchestras also have a distinctive style, using a scale composed of five notes rather than the Western eight-note scale. The most common instruments are the erhu, a tow-stringed instrument played with a bow; the Zheng, a zither; the dizi, a bamboo flute; and the pipa, a four-stringed instrument similar to a lute. Gongs and cymbals provide percussion, especially during fight scenes.     Back to the top

Masks and costumes in Beijing opera

The costumes of Beijing opera are based on the court attire of the Han, Tang, Song, and especially the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 -1911) dynasties. However, despite their roots in history, the costumes are not intended to be realistic; their symbolic characteristics are particularly obvious in the beggar costumes made of silk with colorful patches.

    While the colors and patterns of their stage make-up might be used purely for aesthetic reasons, more often they represent details of character. Red is the color of loyalty and bravery; black represents a good, strong nature - albeit with a touch of the rough-diamond; blue symbolizes courage, but with a slight recklessness and arrogance, while yellow indicates a diminished version of the same failings; green is the sign of an unstable character, orange and grey the signs of age, and a golden mask is worn by gods and goddesses.               Back to the top

Intricate acting in Beijing Opera

    Beijing opera is most enjoyable when the technique of the performers is perfect and when you can follow the stylized methods of expression. Not that this is always easy; there are more than twenty different ways of laughing and smiling alone. The smallest movement of the eyes, the mouth, a single finger, is full of significance. Every gesture has been carefully and painstakingly rehearsed, every movement of hand, foot and body precisely laid down. And they vary from role to role. When a male lead role walks, he lifts his feet up and plac3es them slightly to one side. A female role, on the other hand, walks in a slow glide, with little steps, one foot hardly separated from the other. The painted faces take big steps and adopt an upright, proud posture.

    In contrast to the other three roles, which demand an upright position, the male or female clown uses his whole body in an expressive, lively fashion. Given the symbolic nature of Beijing opera, this theatrical skill demands excellent coordination from the actors. Just as in a good piece of calligraphy, movement must be both stylish and correct, so every symbol must have its exact counterpoint in real life. The actor has to follow the rules and conventions. How far he or she is able to deviate from them - with delicacy and certainty, without in any way breaking them- is a measure of talent.

    Using the medium of Beijing opera, actors can swim on the stage or a battle can be portrayed taking place in water or in darkness. Embroideries can be created or tea prepared using the art of mime. Everyday things can be translated into the language of the stage. Enacting them, the performer of the Beijing opera show three thing: how the portrayal follows the rules, what the character feels about it, and finally, his or her own interpretation of the action.

    With its arcane structures and unique form, Beijing opera is relatively inaccessible4, even to foreigners who speak Chinese. However, some theatres stage shortened performances catering to tourists, often with more acrobatics. Some theatres use detailed English programmer notes or subtitles.     Back to the top

 The Players of Beijing Opera

    There are four different types of role in Beijing opera: sheng, male lead roles; dan, female roles; jing , painted-face roles; and finally chou, male or female clowns. Each major group is divided into sub-groups and there are a host of additional characters such as soldiers, guards and ladies-in -waiting.

    Foreigners often have difficulty understanding the individual roles for instance the xiaosheng, or young male lead role of the Beijing opera The white Snake, had to be turned into a lao sheng ( old man) role for tours abroad, due to inappropriate laughter during some performances. The xiao sheng role calls for rouged cheeks, soft movement, a very high speaking voice and falsetto singing and the overall effect came across as comically effeminate to many non-Chinese audiences.

    Of all the roles in the Beijing opera, the female role is the most important, for two reasons. Firstly, in most of the dramas, stories and novels that form the basis of the operas, a woman is the focus of interest. Secondly, the central figure in Chinese dramas has been a woman ever since the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).

    In general, the dan - who were traditionally played by - have their faces made up with a white base and various shades of carmine, and a little pale pink around the eyes. They move gracefully with soft, flowing steps. Another characteristic is their half- sung, half-spoken dialogue, which sometimes sounds a little like mewing.

    Jing, or painted - face roles, portray warriors, heroes, statesmen, adventurers and supernatural beings. Their stage make-up is skillfully-applied to resemble a mask. Finally, the clowns are easily recognized by their white make-up around their eyes and noses. The eyes are also sometimes enclosed in a black square frame.

    Only comedies have chou (clown) in leading roles; in other pieces they take secondary parts. They often appear as peasants, servants or other menials, and their coarse, colloquial speech makes the audience laugh. What the other roles achieve through expressive, elevated speech, the chou (clown) gains by making use of everyday slang. The jokes of the chou are easy even for a Beijing opera novice to understand, as they are similar to comic characters in theatres worldwide.   Back to the top

Patterns of behavior in Beijing Opera

    Good characters are made up with relatively simple colors, but enemy generals and hostile characters use complicated patterns in their masks. Mysterious characters in the painted-face roles are denoted by all kinds of color and pattern combinations. Cao Cao, one of the main figures from the time of The Three Kingdoms and who often appears on the Chinese stage, is made up in white, with thin eyebrows and sometimes with zigzagging lines painted over his face. This shows not only his great age but also his disgraceful character, as white symbolizes treachery, poor self-discipline, cunning and guile.    Back to the top

The art of seeing in Beijing Opera

    In China, you never5 say you're going to see a Beijing opera; rather, that you are going to listen to one. A famous performer wrote in his memoirs :" If, in earlier years, anyone had ever said he was going to see a Beijing opera, he would have simply sound ridiculous, for connoisseurs went to listen to an opera. During a lengthy sung portion they would not watch the stage, but sit with their eyes closed and listening, clapping to the rhythm and thinking about every word in the song."

    Beijing opera is a complete work of art, rather than a realistic drama. In recent years the use of scenery, lighting effects, and more props has led to some changes, but the form and performances remain essentially the same.

    The emphasis is on the essential, with unnecessary left out. Props are used sparingly, An oar in the hand of a boatman is enough to make it clear that the scene takes place in a boat. A chair can be just a chair, but it can also  be high ground in  a landscape. An unlit candle can be the sign that evening is coming on.

    Every soldier carrying a banner represents a whole regiment, while rider4s will often also portray the horse through mime and gesture, rearing, trotting and galloping like a centaur.

    There is an art to understanding and enjoying this unique type of theatre, and if you want to get the most from your experience of Beijing opera, it is important to understand some of the conventions.

    The style of acting is typical of the "non-reality ' o Beijing opera. The aim of the actor is not , as in Western drama, to become the character portrayed. The actor distances him or herself from the role and tries to quote it, to portray events that are connected to the role. The closest parallels in the West to the ritual style of operatic performance with its fixed gestures are to be found in classic mime, in ballet and among circus clowns.  Back to the top

Modern competition

    Under the influence of foreign culture, modern forms of theatre have only begun to develop in China over the last few decades. Among the influential dramatists are Cao Yu, Tianhan, Guo Moruo and Lao She. The latter wrote The Teahouse, performed in Western Europe and Japan. In the mean time, Western dramatists have also found an audience in China. Successful performances include Brecht's Galileo Galilei and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, as well as various Shakespearean plays. Young dramatists and directors have been trying to break with old conventions. London University's production of Su Liqun's Zhuang Zi Tests his Wife was the first play to be staged in English by local actors in over eighty years, while the truly innovative Experimental Theatre of Modern Drama's Lay Down Your Whip, Woyzeck combined Chinese street theatre with a German anti-fairy tale to deal with issues such as violence against women.

    Today, Beijing opera aficionados are pondering the future. How can they allow innovation to move the art form forward without destroying the unique tradition? Can such an art form, which relies on convention and stereotype, really adapt itself to deal with modern issues? It will take time, but perhaps modern Chinese ballets like Red Detachment of Women, and Western operas like Nixon in China can point the way. Back to the top