Overseas Living: Chinese Opera

Our first experience in Beijing was going to a Chinese Opera. Since Amber is a theater major and actress by profession, we just had to see a production. I had no idea what to expect, which made the experience even more fun. We hadn't eaten since the plane so the jasmine tea and salted peanuts sustained us for the duration of the show. I think the lack of food and jet lag made the view oh, so, pleasurable. (I periodically saw vivid fairies and rainbows during the performance and a Pink Floyd song was playing in the background, it was awesome).

Chinese opera shows began around the 1200s and have been one of the most popular forms of mass entertainment in China. Apparently, there are 300 different styles of Chinese opera all consisting of music, literature, dance, mime and martial arts. The music is funky and sounds a little like my kids' playroom when they find the box of chimes, symbols, and xylophones. The quick tempos and the slow tempos don't seem to correlate with the actor's actions, but maybe that is part of the drama??? I didn't get the rhythm.

Red make-up on a male character signifies bravery and loyalty, while white denotes a powerful villian. (If this is true, the man shown above is deeply confused). Clowns usually wear a white patch on the tip of their nose to indicate wit or playfulness. The guy shown below didn't have much white on his noise but I could just tell he was a playful guy. I think my first clue was that the expressions on his face changed every 3 seconds.

Mastery of this art takes years. Actors usually start when they are children and they pick their specific role from the beginning. In other words, once a villain, always a villain. The singing intrigued me. How do the Chinese know if they are good singers or not? The tonal sounds make their music go from screeching to flat within one bar. Traditional Hindi music is equally confusing, it all sounds like a church choir gone wrong to me.

This guy looks like Hanuman (the Hindu monkey god). I am not sure who he was exactly but he had some serious martial arts skillz (ie. spinning swords on sticks). Monkey madness I tell you.

We saw this show at the Forbidden City. The movements during the fight scenes in this show were amazing. What equally intrigued me was how unidentifiable the gender of the person in white was.