Chinese 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.

Acrobatics

   As one of the traditional art forms, acrobatics has long been popular among the Chinese people for more than 2,000 years. As early as the Warring States (476B.C.-221B.C.), there appeared rudiments of acrobatics. By the time of Han Dynasty, the acrobatics art further developed both in content and form and there appeared superb performances with music accompaniment on the stage, such as ‘pole climbing', ‘role walking', ‘fish turned into dragon', and ‘five tables', etc. In the Tang Dynasty, the most thriving period in ancient China , the number of acrobats greatly increased and their performing skills gained much improved. In Dunhuang Mural Paintings, there are images of acrobatic and circus performances. The ancient acrobatics originated from people's daily life and work. Tools of labour like tridents and wicker and utilities of life such as tables, chairs and bowl were widely used in performances. At festivals, people often performed ‘flying trident', ‘balance on chair', ‘jar tricks', ‘hoop diving', ‘lion dance' at the market places or in the street of town. In the long course of development, the Chinese acrobatics art has formed its own style. For example, it pays much attention to the training of actors' waist, leg and head feats. There are much stability involved in dangerous movements and quietness in actions. The modern acrobatics aim at creating graceful stage images, harmonious musical accompaniment, and good supporting effects, props and lighting. In the past 50 years, many Chinese acrobatic troupes have visited more than one hundred countries and regions around the world and won dozens of prizes in the International acrobatic festivals and championships.

   Wuqiao, a county on the bank of the Grand Canal in Hebei Province , is well known as home to acrobatics in China .It is said that all resident in Wuqiao, from toddlers learning to walk to a 99 –year-old men, can play some acrobatics. Young people practice the art during their breaks from works. Many families have their unique skills passed down through generations. In the county, one might see a farmer in the filed balancing a handcart on his chin, a child walking along the road balancing an inverted bottle filled with oil or vinegar at his little finger point, or a pupil on the way to school balancing an umbrella on his head in a rainy day. There are many acrobats from Wuqiao throughout China even the world. As a saying goes in Chinese acrobatics field, if you don't have an acrobat from Wuqiao, you can't have an acrobatics troupe.

   In China , shadow play appeared during the Western Han Dynasty some 2,000 years ago with its birthplace at today's Shaanxi Province . Here's a legend that Emperor Wu (156B.C.-87B.C.) of Western Han Dynasty was depressed about the death of his beloved concubine Li. To help to get over the sadness, Minister Li made a shadow on the curtain of concubine Li by cotton and silk. Then Emperor began to believe that it was his lover's spirit. It developed into a mature play during the Tang Dynasty and reached its heyday during the Qing Dynasty in Hebei Province . Many China 's local operas were evolved from shadow play. Known as the ‘magic of the East' among Europeans, shadow play is regarded as a precursor of modern cinema and cartoon.

   Just as its name implies, shadow play is a kind of drama in which silhouettes made of hard paper or animal skins are projected onto a white screen. The performer manipulates the characters behind the screen while singing the libretto to tell the story. The story-telling is accompanied by music. The shadow maker is usually made out of clean cowhide or donkey skin with hair removed and colored by five pure watercolors of red, yellow, green, pale green and black. The skin should be translucent after chemical treatment. So the shadow can be endowed with magnificent transparent color on screen, which endows the play a great charm. Besides, the shadow makers are elaborately carved part by part. So the shadow maker can be regarded as the work of art itself. Same here, the roles of shadow play falls into five categories, which are Sheng, Dan, Jing , Mo and Chou. The difference is that every ‘player' consists of 11 parts including head, two body parts, two legs, two upper arms and lower arms as well as two hands. Drawn by the performers through controlling bars and threads, ‘players' can do various kinds of vivid movements. Shadow play demands for high performing skills. Besides control three or four ‘players' at a time, performers have to catch up with the tempo and musical accompany as well as pay attention to dialogue and singing. Hence, it is not an easy job to train a mature shadow play performer.

   Shadow play is rich in repertoire, which includes love romances, mythology, folk story, swordsmen legend and so on. Classical performances are Pilgrimage to the West, Lady White Snack, the Romance of Three Kingdoms, Water Margins, General of Yang Family, Romance of West Chamber and so on. During its development, shadow play has been widely speared all over the country and formed many local schools, such as Tangshan in Hebei Province , Xiaoyi in Shanxi Province , Haining in Zhejiang Province and Lufeng in Guangdong Province.