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The Change of Faces

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  • 2008-05-06 09:05:49
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The Four Successful Candidates

The Four Successful Candidates
The triennial competitive examinations held over the course of more than one thousand years of...

Flower-drum (Huagu) Opera

Flower-drum (Huagu) Opera
Flower-drum Opera, or "Carrying Scent Load", is a local opera originated in the countryside of...

Mei Lanfang

Mei Lanfang
Mei Lanfang (1884 to 1961) is a world famous maestro of Peking Opera in China. As the most...

The change of faces is a stunt in traditional Chinese theatre that is designed to capture the dramatic changes of mood of a character on stage. When a character's heart is going from panic to rage, he changes his face in a split second. The stunt, though somewhat exaggerating, never fails to surprise the audience and enhance the appeal of the show. The change of faces is most often used in Chuanju Opera. In the opera Severing the Bridge, for instance, when the female protagonist Xiao Qing catches sight of the weak-hearted and unfaithful Xu Xian, she burst into a rage, and in her sudden transition of mood from anger to hatred, her fair face experiences a rapid succession of changes from white to red to green and black. The performer is so agile in her movement that each change is made by turning her body. This skill is acquired through special training. In some cases multiple layers of masks are used, to be torn away with each change of facial expression.

 

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