Jing
Chou
The Delights of Peking Opera Masks
What do these colorful masks mean?
A “red face” means the person is loyal and brave.
A “black face” signifies the person is straightforward.
Peking Opera Performance: Sing, Speak, Act, and Fight
• To Chinese people, going to the theater to enjoy Peking Opera or other artistic performances is known as “seeing plays”.
The Delights of Peking Opera Masks
• China’s Peking Opera radiates with the beauty of resplendent (华丽的) color-vivid, intense and glamorous. This artistic beauty comes not only from the costumes but also from the masks of exaggerated, dazzling designs, gleaming with reds, purples, whites, yellows, blacks, blues, greens, every diverse color imaginable.
Introduction
• The second impression of Chinese culture is often Peking Opera, whose masks are now almost emblematic (标志性的) of China. Many countries design posters using Peking Opera masks to signal a “Year of Chinese Culture”. To understand Chinese culture, therefore, some knowledge about Peking Opera is indeed indispensable.