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The Chinese Theatrical Facial Make-up

The theatrical facial make-up of the Chinese opera performance is different from the theatrical make-ups in any other countries due to its unique artistic form. And here is a quotation to be shared with readers who’d like to learn Chinese in China.

The Chinese dramatist Zhang Geng once quoted that the theatrical facial make-up is a particular art of make-up in Chinese opera performances. It can be characterized from the theatrical perspective, and it can be pictorial from the aesthetic perspective. It is noteworthy for friends who’d like to study Chinese in China about his further comments.

Zhang Geng further pointed out that the theatrical facial make-up was developed with the maturation of the Chinese opera, and that is explainable for the comparatively fixed patterns of the make-up. Readers who’d like to study Mandarin in China must be quite interested about the functions of the facial make-ups in the opera performance.

In Chinese operas, the characters were firstly adopted to show the personal social status, position, and occupation, then was further developed in manifesting the moral, temperament and dispositions of the characters. It must be made clear by friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China that the characters in Chinese opera performance are stereotyped and bears distinct moral evaluation or judgment of the characters, such as the one with moral integrity or ones who are filial and upright all wears a dignified make-up, while the duplicity and wicked ones were depicted in ugly make-ups.

It must be made-clear to readers who’d like to study Chinese in China that the theatrical facial make-up and costumes are the direct representation of the opera characters, the costumes were chosen in accordance with the characters social position and status, while the theatrical facial make-up were designed with an eye to the disposition and morality of the characters.

It should also be deeply recognized by the readers who’d like to study Mandarin in China that although the theatrical make-up can be regarded as a hyperbolic and transformative artistic art, the transformation of the theatrical facial make-up would primarily seek to deviate from the shape, which means the theatrical make-up must not be confined to the natural conditions of the real life, but rather to vigorously adopt the exaggerations and ornamental make-up extracted from the observation of real life experiences.

Readers who’s like to learn Chinese in China may also be quite curious about the stretching of the facial make-up, well, a great variety of spectrums are usually adopted in theatrical facial make-up composition, the distinct colors on the opera characters may seem to deviate them from the ordinary life.

Readers who’d love to study Chinese in China then may be aware of the indispensible relationship between the colorful patterns and the art of the theatrical make-up, well, the coloring is just one aspect, what’s more, the colors of the make-up can manifest certain symbolic meanings, such as the red color for the demonstration of the characters loyalty, people for the wisdom and bravery, yellow for the demonstration of military generals’ valiancy and ruthlessness and the literati’s scheming and calculation, blue for the obstinate and unruly, green for the fiery and helpfulness ,etc.

What’s also worth-noticing for readers who’d like to study Mandarin in China is the particularity about the shaping in the transformation process, the first procedure is to take shape, which has to follow certain art of composition, adeptly incorporate the colors and lines into the whole designed pattern, maintaining the similarities of the make-up with the archetype in an artistic way.

Therefore, it can be seen by readers who’d like to learn Chinese in China that great attention has had to be paid to the particulars such as the styles of drawing the eyebrows, which contains more than ten different types to be applied for the theatrical make-up of varied characters.

The theatrical make-up endeavors to express vivid and lively figures for the audiences through the compound use of the methods of deviation from the shapes and taking shapes, so as to achieve those artistic and aesthetic effects in its patterning and furnishing. It is a popular saying in China to be shared with readers who’d like to study Chinese in China that the eyes are the windows to the human inner world. In the opera aesthetics the colorful, constant changing and profound theatrical facial make-ups are the psychological window of the emotions, which plays an important role in arousing the audiences’ aesthetical psychology.

The theatrical make-ups of the characters, combined with the stage effects, their costumes, and the performing techniques will certainly arouse the resonances of those who’d like to study Mandarin in China, welcome come to China and give it a try!

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