A look into Chinese opera, one of the oldest dramatic arts in the world

The realm of western theatre is elaborately decked out to simulate the real world, but for Chinese opera, much of it requires the audience's imagination. To set up the stage, actors leverage a variety of mime-like movements – there is a door when an actor pushes their hands apart; a threshold when an actor crosses it imaginarily; and a horse when an actor waves the tasselled whip. And the minimal use of props informs important environmental details, where a black flag means great wind, a flag with waves indicates a flood, and lanterns mark the dark hours without altering the stage brightness. Traditional Chinese opera has a set of tricks to establish the stage convention, making it a distinctive dramatic art worldwide.  

Hands and fingers play an important role in delivering an actor's feelings, too. The Peking Opera has a special language called 'orchid-speak', in which five fingers of a human hand correspond to five petals of an orchid power, and specific gestures draw an abstraction of a floral state and convey a particular message. An actor is not allowed to shed tears onstage, but they can raise their sleeves to rub their eye, delivering the message that they are down in the dumps.

For Chinese Opera, music comprises an elemental part of the narrative puzzle. There are two musical categories, 'Wen' and 'Wu.' The former category refers to the scenes of beauty, love, and harmony and thus the music should be played with stringed and wind instruments; the latter category refers to fight scenes and acrobatics and is played by drums, gong, and cymbals.

Chinese opera characters usually fall into four categories: Dan, Sheng, Jing, and Chou. Each is earmarked by its own vocal style, make-up, movement, and costumes.

'Dan' broadly refers to female leading roles as characterised by white make-up with rouge across the cheeks and around the eyes. There are many kinds of 'Dan' out there. 'Qingyi', for example, is a middle-aged, married woman with a graceful gait, delicate movement, and an iconic falsetto voice. She wears foot-length long sleeves called 'water sleeves.' 'Guimendan' is a young, good-looking woman from a wealthy family. 'Laodan', refers to an old woman with a headband and a walking staff who wears little or no make-up. A 'Sudan' is a female warrior with chiefly swords and spears without feet-length water sleeves.

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'Sheng', on the other hand, broadly refers to male roles. Among its subcategories, 'Xiaosheng' is a young male Confucius scholar with pale make-up and rouge highlights. 'Laosheng' is an old man with a long, white beard, a plain costume, and a little make-up. 'Wusheng', is the fierce, combative warrior male. If a wusheng appears without armour, he belongs to the close-range type and is skilled in more acrobatics and hand-to-hand technique. 

‘Jing’, or ‘Dahualian’, are painted-face characters, generally representing villains or supernatural beings. Their faces are painted in bold and elaborate colours, which correspond to certain personality traits — an overwhelmingly white face signifies treachery and duplicity, while a black face indicates impartiality and righteousness. Painted-face characters sing in a strong voice and move with exaggerated gestures. A headband is worn around the forehead to recede the hairline and enlarge the face.

‘Chou’, or Clowns, are secondary characters, generally amusing, down-to-earth, and vernacular. A male clown has a distinctive white patch covering the nose, which is associated with being secretive and mean.

The Intoxicated Concubine (貴妃醉酒)
Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang writes the Intoxicated Concubine. The story goes that the imperial concubine and the Great Beauty of China, Yang Guifei, waited for the Emperor in the Hundred Flower Pavilion. But the Emperor doesn’t show up as expected, possibly playing around with other concubines.

The Emperor’s capricious love torments Lady Yang. She gobbles down glasses of wine until she becomes completely intoxicated. At one point, she bows down and grasps the wine glass with her teeth, and with a backward arch of her body, she drinks the wine down. Worried that the beautiful concubine will lose her balance, the maids link arms with Lady Yang and form a row that oscillates as Lady Yang staggers back and forth. The dejected concubine gradually accepts that she is not seeing the Emperor anytime soon. After her euphoric debauchery, she asks the maids to help her back home.

The Emperor’s Daughter (帝女花)
Besieged by the enemy, Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, knows his kingdom is about to end. His beautiful daughter Princess Changping, who has been betrothed to Zhouxian, is bound to be killed lest she suffer shame in the hands of the new ruler.

After the execution, an imperial official finds the princess still breathing and whisks her off to his home. Taken under his wing, the princess gradually recovers. However, the official’s son plans to offer her up so that he can receive a bounty from the new king. Learning the news, the princess flees to a temple in the guise of a nun and settles there as a nobody. One day, Zhouxian rides by and recognises Princess Changping in the temple. She refuses to disclose her identity, but when he threatens suicide, the princess gives in and reveals herself. The confidential conversation is overheard by the Mother Superior, who then gives away Princess Changping to the imperial officials.

Zhouxian and Princess Changping know they have been exposed and agree to meet the new ruler in the royal palace on terms that her deceased father, Emperor Chongzhen, will be buried properly and her brothers will be released from jail. After these terms are satisfied, the new Emperor throws a wedding for the couple. Knowing that the new Emperor may use them in some devilish scheme, the newly-wed couple kills themselves by drinking down poison upon the consummation of their wedding.