Chinese Opera Backstage Photography

Jensen Chua — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 18:11:32 +0000

Dear friends, welcome to my Chinese Opera Backstage Photography session. This event was organised by SAFRA Content Creator Club. In Mandarin, Chinese street opera is called jiexi (“street show”). This traditional Chinese dramatic form was brought to Singapore by immigrants from China in the 19th century as part of their religious rites. Since then, the popularity of wayang has been like the sea tides, sometimes high, sometimes low.

The three main genres of wayang in Singapore are from the three largest Chinese dialect groups in Singapore: fujianxi (Hokkien opera), chaoju (Teochew opera) and yueju (Cantonese opera), each with its distinctive features and characteristics. The differences include the use of various local dialects and styles, although they may share similar costumes, tunes and stories. Wayang continues to be performed in Singapore. The government and various community associations promote it as part of Singapore’s cultural heritage, and there has been a resurgence of performances by troupes from China and a revival of local amateur troupes.

Male artiste commenced on face base paint. He would go on to be the troupe’s grumpiest guy.

There are five major colours for the makeup in Chinese opera: red, black, white, blue and yellow. Each colour symbolizes a unique character, for example, red symbolizes bravery; black symbolizes loyalty; white symbolizes evil; blue symbolizes cruelty and outrageous arrogance and yellow symbolizes competency and valiancy (excerpts from University of Hong Kong).

According to the usual practice, all artists in Cantonese opera have to put on their make-up on their own. Each character’s makeup has its distinctive characteristics.

The main male and female roles wear simple makeup that is meant to beautify them. They wear white, oil-based foundation, followed by peach-red rouge from their eyebrows down to their eyes and cheeks.

Facial makeup, a special art in Chinese operas, calls for a distinctive technique of painting. Bold designs and colours are painted on each performer’s face to symbolize a character’s personality, role and fate. For example, red represents loyalty and bravery; black is representative of valour; yellow and white, duplicity; and golden and silver, mystery

Makeup is almost completed, after almost 30 min.

Stage props, used by the actors and actresses during their performance. This is a “writing kit” that the artists use for writing on stage.

The actors in Chinese operas are exposed to heavy metals through the face paints that they use but the resulting health risks are unknown.

Female artiste preparing forehead hair attachment with glue.

The forehead hairline is glued on the artiste’s head.

In traditional Chinese opera, cross-dressing is common practice, with male actors performing female roles and vice versa. Dressing up as the opposite sex often serves as a metaphor for the loss of one’s identity or for gender dysphoria

Theatrical cross-dressing has roots in the restrictive gender norms of imperial Chinese society. During the Ming and Qing dynasties — two periods in which Chinese opera flourished — society controlled interactions between men and women much more strictly than today.

Dan — Female Roles. Dan is the term for female roles in Peking Opera. The roles can be divided into six subtypes based on the characters played. There is Zhengdan (Qingyi), Gui mendan, Wudan (acrobat), Laodan (old woman), Huadan, and Daomadan (a stronger, more forceful character).

Colour patterns painted on the faces of opera characters are called lianpu , or facial makeup. When a character’s face needs to be exaggerated, a makeup type is painted. The most common facial makeup types are jing and chou. Jing is an actor with a painted face and chou is the role of a clown.

The stage, where music, song, dance, speech and acrobatics are woven together to create a unique form of drama. It draws the raw material for its stories from historical records, popular legends and folktales. More than just an amazing show, Chinese Opera is also a window into Chinese culture.

Conclusion

I hope my “Chinese Opera Backstage Photography helped to shed some light and whet your interest in the art. Thanks for coming along on my travel journey. For other travel inspiration please check out my other travelogues here. All pictures used in this article are copyrighted to Jensen Chua Photography and all rights reserved. The information expressed is gathered from various sources while opinion is that of the author.

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Chinese Traditional Opera Archives - Jensen Chua Photography

Chinese Opera Backstage Photography

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