Yellowmenace: ART: Peking Opera

December 22, 2014

ART: Peking Opera - Portraits on Silk

Portraits of Peking Opera Characters

Unknown Artist

via: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Peking Opera characters - http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/51581

Qing dynasty (1644–1911) album featuring 100 opera characters painted on silk with ink & gold. This post contains my 25 personal favorites.

"This album records in detail the makeup and costume of one hundred characters drawn from nine plays. Each character is identified with an accompanying inscription, and the plays are named at the top right of nine of the leaves in slightly larger script." -The Met

"Peking opera (京剧) or Beijing opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century."
via: Wikipedia

"The form was extremely popular in the Qing dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south. The art form is also preserved in Taiwan, where it is known as Guoju (國劇)."

via: Wikipedia

Do not mess with this guy; 2 swords & the most exaggerated frown, EVR!

You do not want to watch this guy eat a bowl of noodles.

Chinese opera Moses says, "You're outta here!"

I would like to see an opera in China, before I die. I saw Chinese opera students perform selected scenes from famous works at a festival in Busan & I have seen a Kabuki show in Osaka.

How's that beard? It looks delicious.

"The repertoire of Peking opera includes over 1,400 works, which are based on Chinese history, folklore, and, increasingly, contemporary life."

"Although it is called Peking opera (Beijing theatre style), its origins are in the southern Anhui and eastern Hubei."

There are 4 main types of roles in Peking opera;
Sheng (生) - The main characters, protagonists or leading men
Dan (旦) - All of the female roles, usually consisting of old women, skilled martial arts women, young women, virtuous women, or unmarried vivacious women.
Jing (净) - Strong powerful painted face roles, secondary characters
Chou (丑) - Funny clownish characters for comic relief, also in painted face.