Beijing opera

Beijing opera, mostly known as Peking opera, is a purely Chinese opera form, which dates back to the year 1790. That year, four local opera troupes of Anhui Province came to Beijing on a performance tour on the order of the imperial court.

There are usually four main roles in the Opera, which are Sheng, Dan, Jing. Chou.

Sheng

Sheng is for the male actor played as "Laosheng", who wear beards and represent old men, "Xiaosheng", who represent young men, "Wusheng", who are acrobats playing military men and fighters, and "Wawasheng" who play kids. These roles usually wear no facial paintings. "Hongsheng", another category of "Sheng" whose face is painted red.

Dan

Dan is the female role - formerly, the female impersonator. Same as sheng, it is divided into many categories. "Laodan" are the old ladies while "Caidan" the female comedians. "Wudan" usually play military or non-military women capable of martial arts. The most important category, "Qingyi" usually play respectable and decent ladies in elegant costumes. "Huadan" represent lively and clever young girls, usually in short costumes.

Jing

Thirdly, Jing, mostly males, is the face-painted role who represents warrior, hero, statesman, adventurer and demon.

Chou

And finally, Chou refers to clowns who are characterized by a white patch on the nose. Usually white patches of different shapes and sizes mean roles of different characters. They are not definitely rascals, while most of the time they play roles of wit, alert and humor. It is these characters who keep the audience laughing and improvise quips at the right moment to ease tension in some serious plays.

Additionally, apart from these differentiated roles in Beijng Opera, the colors of the faces represent different characters and personality. For example:

1. Yellow and white represent cunning
2. Red stands for uprightness and loyalty
3. Black means valor and wisdom
4. Blue and green indicate the vigorous and enterprising character of rebellious heroes
5. Gold and silver represent mystic or super-natural power.

Full of Chinese cultural facts, the opera presents to the audience an encyclopedia of Chinese culture as well as unfolding stories, beautiful paintings, exquisite costumes, graceful gestures and acrobatic fighting...

Beijing Opera will be performed at Liyuan Theater starting from 07:30 –08:45pm.