Beijing Opera

The Beijing Opera

The Beijing opera, also known as Peking opera, is considered to be among the cultural treasures of China.  It first came to be during the late 18th century and became fully developed around the middle of the 19th century.  The art form reached its peak at the time of the Qing dynasty; it was most popular during that time.

The Beijing opera is a mixture of song and dance, of miming and acrobatics, of music and vocal performance.  The emphasis of the art form is in the expression of beauty rather than in accuracy, and in the layering of meaning into every word spoken and every gesture made.  The Beijing opera boasts of a repertoire of 1,400 works, the works derived from historical and traditional stories, folklore, political and military stories and stories about contemporary life.

Roles in the Beijing Opera

Actors involved with a troupe performing the Beijing opera train rigorously in their art starting from an early age.  They then specialize into different traditional roles in Beijing opera, namely:

 

·         Sheng.  The sheng role pertains to the main male role in Beijing opera.  This role has a few subtypes: laosheng for old man, xiaosheng for young man, and wusheng for warrior.

 

·         Dan.  The dan role refers to any female role.  In the early days, men take on playing dan roles, since women were banned from performing back then.  Subtypes of the dan role are: laodan for old woman, wudan for older warrior, deomedan for younger warrior, qingyi for virtuous woman of high status, and huedan for unmarried woman.

 

·         Jing.  The jing role is always male.  He is the one often seen with heavy, patterned makeup, and he makes use of a forceful voice and exaggerated gestures in his acting.

 

·         Chou.  The chou role is a secondary clownish character, also always male.  Though secondary, his is often the most difficult role, because he needs to combine improvisation with dance, song and comic gestures.  He also wears distinct makeup, called xiaohualian.