I. Introduction
Anyone who sits before a Chinese operatic stage for the first time will find the experience both unique and rewarding. With its brilliant costumes, its high-pitched singing, its brightly painted faces and its symbolic acting, the Chinese opera leaves with its audience an impression not to be easily forgotten.
Before the show is on, the audience sees a curtainless and almost empty stage, with practically no scenery and no furniture on it except for a desk and a couple of chairs. The stage may serve to represent anything, a court, a room, a battlefield, a lady's boudoir, or even a river, depending on what the playwright wants it to be. The audience therefore need not be surprised if the same empty stage stands for the scene of a siege in the first act and becomes a loyal palace in the next. The actors usually describe the scene briefly as they enter the stage.
At the back of the stage are two doors, one for entrance and one for exit. Actors invariably enter through one door and leave through the other. At the right hand of the stage sit a group of musicians who play throughout the show almost without stopping.
Some of the techniques on the Chinese stage may take a Westerner by surprise. Discarding all conventional ways of exposition employed in Western plays, an actor in a Chinese opera just walks to the footlights and declares: "I, so and so, am an influential courtier, etc ... " thus making a self-introduction. Sometimes he also briefly narrates his background and announces what is about to happen in the play.
Again, the audience need not be surprised if an actor walks out of the stage a young man and a moment later returns through another door with long beards. In a Chinese opera, the time element is sometimes handled cavalierly and events follow one another at a galloping pace. Again, geography is not permitted to disturb the Chinese dramatist. The same empty stage may represent Shanghai and, without any change, may in the next act stand for Canton. The actors usually explain the change of time and scenes in a monologue to help the audience's imagination. Unnatural and primitive as such stage techniques might seem, they nevertheless simplify the flow of the story by discarding elements which the playwright thinks unimportant to what he intends to present.
The singing in a Chinese opera, to which no parallel can be drawn from Western operatic singers, may also sound queer to Western ears. The falsetto voice in a Chinese opera is moulded into shape after long years of training according to strict Chinese yardsticks and many Chinese enjoy it so much that they go to the theater to listen rather than to see. The incessant playing of the band with its gongs and drums, sometimes reaching a nerve-racking point, is traditional in the Chinese opera, largely because in a Chinese theater in the olden times, the music had to be loud to attract the attention of the public.
II. Acting on the Chinese Stage
Chinese acting is symbolic. In a Chinese operatic show, actors and actresses usually perform in a way with which the westerners are almost entirely unacquainted. For instance, an actor need not actually weep to convey his sorrow. He simply raises his sleeve to his face in a gesture to wipe out the presumed tears. Likewise, a heartbroken wife does not embrace her departing husband. With downcast eyes, she puts her long sleeve on his shoulder to express her innermost feelings. These are examples of how the acting on a Chinese stage goes.
For Chinese operatic actors there are rigid rules on how to do this and that. These rules have been worked out largely because the Chinese stage is almost empty and there must be set conventions by which the audience can be told what the actors are supposed to be doing in the absence of stage settings. How effective the acting will turn out to be depends on the individual performers, and this often distinguishes the genius from the mediocre.
There are no doors nor windows on the stage. Instead, bringing two hands together at arm's length denotes closing a door, which is of course imaginary. A merry chamber maid may do this to keep out her harassing young master. And to open a door, the actor simply moves apart his already closed hands. He crosses an imaginary threshold by either a light hop or lifting his foot high and then setting it down carefully one after the other. If he walks before the bright footlights with both hands stretching out and feeling about, he is groping in darkness. Two men doing this on the stage may indicate a night search in pitch darkness, and they do not see each other.
With the few simple properties on the stage, the Chinese operatic performers can produce a variety of actions which would be hard to represent on a western stage. The Chinese actor leads no horse to the limelight. If he enters the stage waving a stick deco rated with clusters or tufts of tassels, he is riding on horseback. The tufted stick is sup posed to be a whip. When he throws the whip on the stage or hands it to a servant, he is alighting. A character walking between a pair of yellow flags is riding on a carriage. The flag is usually embroidered with a wheel outside, thus indicating it is part of a vehicle. A few strokes of a paddle brings one down a stream but no boat is actually used. In some plays most of the events are supposed to take place on a boat or ship, and the actors, using nothing but a paddle, will perform in such a way as if they were actually sailing over the waves.
If a character mounts a table and crouches with his face hidden in his hands, he is in hiding. A man waving a flag painted with a fish in water is bringing in a surging flood. To hold a fan over the head indicates hot sunshine above, while running quickly with hands shielding the forehead denotes a heavy downpour. An actor playing the role of the "monkey king" moves and gesticulates like a real monkey. He jumps about and scrapes his thighs. A drunkard lurches on the stage to indicate his intoxication. During the play, food and drinks are never brought to the stage. The actor simply holds an empty cup to his mouth and covers it with his right sleeve to represent drinking. He sometimes breathes heavily to show that the drinks are very strong. If the play calls for eating, he uses Chinese chopsticks to pick imaginary food from an empty bowl.
There are also set rules for conveying human emotion. The Chinese actor puffs up his false beard or shakes his head violently to give vent to his anger. If he spreads his hands about and contracts his brows, he is in deep worry. His sighs sound loud and strange. A laugh varies with the different characters of the cast. An upright gentleman laughs a hearty laughter, a treacherous man titters and grins, while an ill-bred girl giggles. Clowns chuckle, and a rough character assails the audience with an outburst of uproarious laughter. Dignified personages pace the stage with deliberate steps, while a woman wriggles and a gallant young man dashes.
A man salutes his friends by raising two clasped hands, like a Western boxer when he returns the cheers of the spectators. To show high respect, the Chinese actor makes a deep bow with clasped hands. He never shakes hands, but kneels often, particularly to emperors, high officials, judges and elders. Sometimes he kneels down on one knee.
In the case of a female character, she places her hands at one side and bends he body slightly as a curtsy. She sometime also kneels down. To indicate shyness, she raises her right sleeve before her face. Of Course she may still peep at her beau behind the sleeve. She never kisses nor embraces her young man however madly in love she may be. Instead, the couple may hold out their arms and touch each other's hands which are concealed in their long sleeves. A female character must learn how to point her fingers deftly and glance sideways to add to her feminine charms. The way she does this will indicate her personality. A noble lady walks with grace and dignity, but a flirtatious woman sways gaily about. Between man and woman there is always a distance, particularly according to old Chinese traditions of bygone days. Love making is but vaguely indicated on the Chinese stage, generally in a subtle and restrained manner. Even man and wife behave with utmost politeness and, to western eyes, act as if they were mere acquaintances.
As has been hinted at above imaginary acting is an important feature of the Chinese opera. A young lady may draw an invisible thread from an unseen box and take down an imaginary needle from her headdress to do a little sewing. With nothing in her hands, she will act as if she were really and intently engaged in sewing. A country girl feeding poultry will scatter imaginary corn on the stage while actually no hens or ducks are seen. And fighting on the stage is also unrealistic but symbolic.
During a stage fight between two Chinese actors, each displays his own acrobatic skill rather than engage each other in an actual fight. The loser of the battle may roll over on the stage or turn an air somersault to concede defeat. The victor, instead of chasing his fleeing foe, will show off more acrobatic feats and execute a few difficult stunts to win applause. Both before and after battles between leading combatants, a group of acrobats will roll and jump all over the stage displaying all sorts of gymnastic tour de force. They do this to indicate that it is a hotly contested battle between the two sides. A general who has lost his helmet and runs wildly about the stage with his long hair flying loose is supposed to be seriously wounded. Killed fighters fall down on the stage but then, they rise up and hurriedly walk away. In some plays, a swordsman may climb up a high wooden frame and then jump down with a somersault. This is actually another showoff of an exceptionally dangerous feat to indicate that he has jumped down from either a towering building or a tall wall. On the Chinese stage, a giant is sometimes defeated by a dwarf. The audience need not be surprised at this because this dwarf is supposed to be a dexterous gladiator with unusual prowess and valor.
Peculiar ways of acting like these are symbolic, and typical of Chinese stagecraft and sense of humor. Despite its peculiarities and its unfamiliarity to Westerners, the Chinese opera is still loved by its devotees the world over for its rich pageantry and artistic representation. The stage conventions of the Chinese opera, odd as they may appear, actually serve as an effective means of dramatic representation in the absence of elaborate stage settings and properties.
III. Costumes in Chinese Opera
Costumes on the Chinese operatic stage are seldom matched elsewhere in their rich color and elaborate designs. Generally speaking, they represent what the Chinese people wore in days before the eighteenth century, and betoken attachment to old Chinese pageantry.
The costumes are symbolic rather than realistic. Rich or poor, the characters appear in silk garments, and they wear the same garbs for both winter and summer. For different parts of the cast, the Chinese opera has specific and rigidly fixed costumes. For instance, monarchs always appear in yellow silk gowns decorated with embroidered dragons, a barbarian chieftain always wears a piece of fur around his neck regardless of weather, while generals are wrapped up in armor-like robes.
Roughly speaking, the costumes can be classified into men's and ladies' garments. Characters of the warrior type are arrayed in another special form of raiments patterned after armors, in which Chinese fighters went to war in olden days.
Leading male characters in the show usually wear long, loose garments with large sleeves. They vary in color and design. Nobles and country gentlemen wear robes of colors befitting their age. Gallant young men are distinguished by bright colored attires. And the audience must not be surprised if it sees a bearded actor appear in a scarlet robe. He is a high official in the Chinese play. If his robe is embroidered with some fancy needle work, his position is even higher. Other officials are enrobed in sky blue, and monarchs, as mentioned above, wear yellow-colored gowns. One thing on the stage may appear unnatural: even beggars don silk garbs, though marked with checker-board designs to denote that their clothes are patched up. Characters of less importance in the play, such as servants and peddlers, usually wear plain colored jackets, since only characters of the higher classes are entitled to long robes.
Following old Chinese traditions, Chinese women on the stage do not expose any part of their body except their faces and hands. Their apparels enhance their feminine grace rather than exhibit their native charms.
Young ladies move gracefully in beautifully designed blouses and skirts. Their jackets also have long and large sleeves, completely concealing their arms and hands. Virtuous ladies are usually clad in simple attire of sober colors, while the gay women dazzle the audience with their brilliant silk dresses. Teenage girls prefer tight fitting waistcoats fastened around their loins to fully display their youthful figure. Old women are dressed in a simple and plain style. Daughters of commoners usually wear long trousers instead of skirts, which are-reserved for the upper classes.
Then there is the special outfit for combat. Both men and women are swathed in "silk" armors when they go to battle. In duels and fights outside the battlefield, they are dressed in tight jackets and long trousers, and for night combats they are clad in black for camouflage. In day time their combat raiments are as brightly colored as the robes of a dashing beau.
The so-called armor worn by Chinese operatic warriors are styled after the steel armor and leather harness which protected Chinese warriors in ancient times. Each coat of mail on the stage consists of several pieces: two shoulder pieces which also cover the forearms; a breast plate and a back plate fastened by a girdle; two cuisses protecting the thighs and legs; and two pieces shielding the lower front and back parts. Chinese warriors wear helmets which leave their faces exposed.
As has been mentioned above, this so-called armor is made of silk, instead of steel and leather. On the breast piece is usually embroidered the heraldic device of the fighter. The armor plates are generally brightly colored and embroidered with mail-like designs. Armors for men and women fighters are largely of the same style, except that lady warriors are dressed in more fancy outfits. A general of a high rank usually has four silk flags planted back of his shoulders, because flags indicate authority in the Chinese opera. Warriors with towering head dresses and gorgeous costumes present the spectacular pageantry of the Chinese stage.
All Chinese characters on the stage wear headdresses, which vary from the glittering jewelry ornaments for ladies to imposing headgears for great generals. Crowns are decorated with a cluster of silk tufts and golden laces, while the headpiece of a barbarian chieftain carries two long pheasant feathers. A civil official wears a round, black satin hat with a wing on each side; and the longer the wings, the higher his position. Good officials have square wings on their hats, while wicked ones wear rhomboid wings. Country squires wear square hats of no brims, usually of a sober color. A general's head dress is bedecked with silk tufts and a spear-like ornament atop. A young scholar usually wears a hat of an elaborate design, and if the hat is marked with silk tufts, he is probably also versed in fighting. Monks cover their shaven heads with a boat-shaped black cap.
All female characters appear in some form of headdress. A noble lady wears a jeweled headpiece, while a young girl loves to stud her hair with shining trinkets. A bride wears a jewelry bedecked headdress, with a piece of red satin covering up her face. The bridegroom is the only one who has the privilege of removing her red veil on the wedding night. An old woman wraps up her hair with a piece of plain cloth.
No western style shoes ever appear on the Chinese operatic stage. Officials and generals wear black boots with thick white wooden soles, which make them appear taller and more imposing than they really are. The gentry usually have the same type of boots as the officials, but the lower class people wear Chinese shoes of a plain style. Characters of the acrobatic type jump on the stage in light and soft shoes. Ladies wriggle along, revealing sometimes under their long skirts a glimpse of silk sneakers decorated with silk tufts.
There is yet another type of footgear designed particularly for female warriors. Acting the part of a Chinese lady warrior of centuries ago, an actress sometimes wears a pair of petite shoes covering only the fore parts of her feet, and walks on tiptoe in ballet dancer fashion. She does this to imitate a Chinese woman of olden days whose feet were bound into half of their natural size. Although the practice of foot-binding has long been abolished in China, Chinese audiences still love to see female characters walk in this fashion. Standing on her toes, an ordinary actress would have extreme difficulty to maintain her balance, not to say per forming acrobatic stunts. Only those who have perfected their skill through long years of arduous training can master the art of walking and fighting tiptoe on the Chinese stage.
IV. Make-up and Face Painting
With the exception of female characters and male scholars, almost all other types appear on the Chinese operatic stage with painted faces, a form of strange make-up varying from a splash of white color over the nose of a clown, to the ghost-like painting on the face of a tough guy. This tradition of face-painting has come down through out the years since the Chinese opera gained its popularity over two centuries ago, possibly because the early form of the Chinese opera was derived from the primitive dances of witches in ancient times, who appeared in inhuman faces.
Whatever its origin, face-painting in the Chinese opera figures as an outstanding art, unique to the oriental dramatic presentation. It is part of the beauty and pageantry of the Chinese stage, and adds gorgeous color to the show. In the western world, perhaps only the masks used in Greek plays could be called a remote parallel to the face-painting in the Chinese opera.
It is interesting to note that ladies and scholarly gentlemen are the only ones who appear in their natural complexion without face-painting. Indeed the ladies would be very unattractive, and the scholars ungentleman-like if their faces should be a mess of colors. Instead, another way of facial make-up is designed to beautify them.
On the Chinese operatic stage, the part of a charming lady is often played by a man actor, just as boys in Shakespearian plays acted the parts of heroines. In recent years, actresses are playing a more active role in the Chinese opera and taking over many parts formerly dominated by men-actors in disguise. But most grandes dames in the Chinese opera are still men. Behind a veil of make-up, an actor playing the part of a female character looks almost every inch a charming girl. At his make-up desk, he first powders his face with white cosmetics. His eye-brows are drawn thin but dark. Around his eyes and over his cheeks are dusted a layer of rose-red rouge, because the Chinese stage expert believes this to be an effective design to bring out feminine charms. The nose is not touched by red powder, standing out straight and clean. Lipsticks are lavishly used to curve out a full, shapely mouth. Eye-lashes are darkened. All these, coupled with a tress of jewelry-studded false hair, create a lovely woman out of the commonplace face of a man. And, with fitting women's apparels, he may wriggle to the footlight very much a woman in the eyes of the audience.
Actresses playing the parts of young ladies, of course, follow practically the same make-up steps. But old women need very little cosmetics, and. appear largely in their natural complexion. Here is something rather confusing. As the role of an old woman is usually performed by an actor, not an actress, and dressed in one of those large, loose gowns worn by men, it is sometimes difficult for the western audience to discover that this character is supposed to be a woman. There is one unmistakable indication: the old man wears a white beard, while the old woman has none.
A female character on the Chinese stage has another special make-up device. She stitches two slices of false hair closely by her ears, thus making her face look slimmer and more charming. This device is necessary considering that many female characters in the show are actually men, and their faces would otherwise appear too broad to pass for that of a teenage girl.
Leading young men of scholarly type, usually the heroes of the show, appear in about the same type of make-up as the lady's, but with less emphasis on youthful charms and in much lighter shades. The old man type wears a long beard completely concealing his mouth and the lower part of his face, because men in China in olden days were not supposed to shave themselves. Young men on the stage are beardless, and also use lipsticks. The beard is the indicator of age. A man of 70 and a man of 30 on the stage may have the same kind of make-up except that one wears a beard while the other does not.
In the Chinese opera, the painted-face is called "Ching" who is the major supporting actor in the play. In some plays he is even the hero of the show, and he is usually well versed in acrobatic feats. The painted face may feature any kind of color. A scarlet-red face indicates high integrity and dignity. Rarely have any other characters appeared in red face except a deified warrior called General Kuan Yu. A treacherous and yet powerful personage has a totally white-powdered face, while an honest and upright tough guy is distinguished by a black face. Other face-paintings are a combination of colors, chiefly white, black, red and blue.
Generally speaking, a face painted in simple designs usually denotes a good character, while that of complicated and grotesque patterns represents a villian. There are several basic types of face-painting. One may be called the "old warrior" type; featuring a completely white patch above the eye-brows, with painting of another color, either red, purple or black, on the lower part. Another type is conventionally named the "three tile" face, presenting three daubs of black colors like three tiles, over the two eyes and the mouth against a white or red background. A third type may be called the "perfect face", with almost entirely black or red color. Still another type is the "broken face", so dubbed because the face represents a kaleidoscope of all colors arranged in regular or irregular patterns.
Designs of all sorts may appear on the painted face. Here symbolism again is the key note. A monkey king has his face painted like that of a monkey, and a crab monster is indicated by a crab drawn over his face. Some may have an extra eye on his forehead, others a spear, coins, or fire-like designs ac cording to legends about the particular characters. A dragon monarch has on his face a white dragon head against a black background. An elephant monster actually paints a long trunk and two curved ivory tusks on his face. A leopard monster's face looks like a real leopard. The most fantastic is perhaps the face of a "nine-head bird" monster, distinguished by nine pairs of painted eyes, indicating its nine heads.
Most of the painted faces look much larger than they really are, and very imposing too. There is a secret about it. To make their faces bigger, actors formerly shaved off part of the hair above the forehead and daubed paints not only on their faces but also on the shaven part. Now actors have devised a simpler and less painful way to enlarge their faces. They first wrap a strip of white cloth over the forehead, and then lavish paints on it to create a big face. The thick colors completely conceal the cloth, and under the limelight, the real face and the cloth-covered part look a whole piece.
Actors and actresses usually do the make· up by themselves. On the make-up desk are cosmetics, paints, brushes, powder puffs and it requires a highly polished art to wield them. Some characters need but light make-up, while others may call for strong colors. In the case of face-painting, the task is even more difficult, for there are numerous, specific patterns for different characters. The actors themselves must learn by heart all of the patterns, numbered by scores, and know how to paint them accurately. One wrong stroke, and the Chinese opera fans would instantly discern it. The mistake might well cause the actor a painful loss of fame, sometimes even his whole stage career. The Chinese audience — and perhaps the western admirer too—enjoys the face-paintings, grotesque as they may appear.
With all its oddities and in some cases disregard of logic, the Chinese opera has for centuries provided amusement to the Chinese people and won their warm attachment. Unhampered by its primitive stage devices and techniques, the Chinese opera serves as an effective medium for portraying human nature and is loved by many a Western spectator despite the language barrier. To the vast Chinese theatre-going public, it is not only entertaining, but also educational.
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THE COACHMAN'S WIFE
When Yen Tse, Prime Minister of Chi, went out, his coachman's wife peeped through the crack of the door to look at her husband. Being the Prime Minister's coachman, her husband held a big umbrella over his master, drove a coach-and-four, and looked proud and pleased with himself. He soon returned, and the wife expressed her wish to leave him. The husband asked for an explanation whereupon the wife said, "Standing less than six chih tall, Yen Tse is Prime Minister of Chi. His name is known among all the feudal lords. But when I watched him go out today, he was deep in thought and humble of bearing. Now you are eight chih tall but a mere servant and coachman. Yet you seem to be contented. That is why I beg leave to go away." Thereafter the husband restrained his proud bearing. Yen Tse, wondering at the change, asked him about it, and the coachman told him the truth. Yen Tse recommended him to be a high official. —Yen Tse Spring and Autumn