Peking Opera
With its fascinating and artistic accompanying music, singing and costumes, the Peking Opera is China's national opera. Full of Chinese cultural facts, the opera presents the audience with an encyclopedia of Chinese culture, as well as unfolding stories, beautiful paintings, exquisite costumes, graceful gestures and martial arts. Since Peking Opera enjoys a higher reputation than other local operas, almost every province in China has more than one Peking Opera troupe. Opera is so popular among Chinese people, especially seniors, that even "Peking Opera Month" has been declared.
Beijing Opera has a history of 200 years in which its fountainhead can be dated back to old local operas, especially Anhui Opera (Anhui province), which was very popular in northern China in the 18th century. In 1790, the first Anhui Opera performance was held in Beijing to celebrate the Emperor's birthday. Later, some other Anhui Opera troupes went on to perform in Beijing. Anhui Opera was easy to move and good at absorbing the acting styles of other types of operas. Beijing accumulated many local operas, which made Anhui Opera improve quickly. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, after merging for 10 years, Beijing Opera finally formed, and became the biggest of all operas in China. Beijing Opera has a rich list of plays, artists, troupes, audiences, and wide influences, making it the foremost opera in China.
Peking Opera features "character categorization". In accordance with gender and disposition, characters are divided into four basic roles: Sheng (male character type), Dan (female character type), Jing (character type with a painted face), and Chou (a clown). Each role type comes with its own subdivision.
Sheng is a grown-up male. It can be further divided into four types. First, Lao Sheng playing middle-aged or old men with beard; Second, Wu Sheng, or man with martial skills.; Third, Xiao Sheng playing young handsome men, most of whom are sholars; and fourth, Hong Sheng playing characters with a red face such as Guan Yu and Zhao Kuang yin. Dan is a general term for female characters. The gentle and quiet is called Qing Yi and usually represents orthodox young women. The vivacious is called Hua Dan and represents girls of ordinary households or extroversive disposition. There are also Lao Dan (old female), Wu Dan (female with martial skills) and Cai Dan which used to be played by male actors. The Jing roles are divided into the “Singing-oriented” type, or Wen Jing, and the “martial” type, or Wu Jing. Chou (clown) is the fourth role category in Peking Opera and serves as a foil to the leading character, but it predated other role categories. “No Chou role, no play” has long been a popular saying. The Chou role category is divided into Wen Chou (gentle clowns) and Wu Chou (martial clowns).
Peking Opera costumes are called Xingtou or, more popularly, Xifu in Chinese. The origins of Peking Opera costumes can be traced back to the mid-14th century when operatic precursors first began to experiment with large, ornate articles of clothing. Since each dynasty in Chinese history had its own unique operatic costume, the number of costumes was too great for performers to master. Hence, artists and costume designers worked together to create costumes that would be unwieldy on stage and acceptable no matter when or where the action was supposed to take place. The stage image of some well-known historical figures, such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhang Liang, were already fixed in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Qimo is a general designation for all kinds of stage properties and simple settings used in Beijing Opera performances. It comes from the real life experience. For example, an actor can practice the scene of galloping the horse simply by using a horsewhip without riding a real horse on stage. A bridge is made up of two chairs standing on each side of a table. Storms are realized by performers dancing with umbrellas. The imaginary performance skills largely bring to performers the freedom to express more life scenes.
It is widely acknowledged that the end of the 18th century was the most flourishing period in the development of Beijing Opera. During this time, there were lots of performances not only in folk places, but also in the palace. The noble class loved Beijing Opera; the superior elements in the palace played a positive role in the performances, make-up, and stage setting. The mutual influence between palace and non-government places promoted Beijing Opera's development. From the 1920's to the 1940's of last century was the second flourishing period of Beijing Opera. The symbol of this period was the emergence of lots of sects of the opera. The four most famous were "Mei" (Mei Lanfang 1884-1961), "Shang" (Shang Xiaoyun 1900-1976), "Cheng" (Cheng Yanqiu 1904-1958), and "Xun" (Xun Huisheng 1900-1968). Every sect had its groups of actors and actresses. Furthermore, they were extremely active on the stage in Beijing, Shanghai, and so on. The art of Beijing Opera was very popular at that time.
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