Chinese Opera

A little bird told me..........

The Chinese opera dates back thousands of years. In olden China. it was used to carry messages that promotes harmony, good morals, history and sometimes propaganda.

What stands out uniquely about chinese operas are the costumes, the elaborate head dresses, the hair ornaments for the women, the high court shoes which increases the height of the performers and the different styles of face painting.
Each painted face has a special meaning to depict the character of the performer.
For example, the hero characters are normally painted in relatively simple colours, whereas the enemy, bandits, rebels have more complicated designs on their faces

Our Malaysian Chinese operas are fast disappearing and perfomances are usually confined to entertaining the rural and urban folks during religious festivals.
Putting up a show is hard work ! Let's peek into what happens back stage.
Trade secrets are closely guarded, as certain make-up methods and rituals are followed. Taboos are to be closely observed backstage. As plenty of equipment are utilised, crates containing important costumes cannot be kicked even accidently as it symbolises bad luck.
Cues for meals, prayers, sleeping, acting, singing have to be followed to the dot.
You can tell a performer's ranking by her cubicle. The more senior ones gets their own cubicle, her own make-up table. The room is also where she eats, rest and rehearses. Everyone else only gets a hand-held mirrow for doing their make-up and has to share the common hall at the back.



An accomplished actress is required to be multi-functional and that includes impersonating male roles. As such, she has to master voice intonation, moves and perform martial arts to wow the audience. If you were to consider that she has to change attire and switch between masculine and feminine roles seamlessly during the three-hour play, its certainly no easy feat !