Beijing Opera, a major Chinese theatrical form, enjoys great popularity both at home and abroad. To many foreign theatergoers, it is almost synonymous with China’s classical theatre. Beijing Opera is, indeed, the most representative of all Chinese traditional dramatic art forms.
Created and developed by talented artists over a period of several centuries, classical Chinese drama is a comprehensive performing art with a unique form of its own-comprehensive because it is an ingenious combination of elements from many sources: traditional Chinese music, poetry, singing, recitation, dancing, acrobatics, and martial arts, all blended into one great theatrical art without a trace of affectation. Varying in style from place to place, the traditional theatre in China boasts over a hundred different types, with singing as their common feature. Hence, traditional Chinese drama is a kind of singing drama or opera and yet it has nothing in common with the opera or operetta of the West. It is much more than both in the usual sense. Theatrical art forms in many countries do not present singing, dancing and spoken parts in one single drama. An opera singer, for instance, neither dances nor speaks on stage; there are no singing or dancing parts in a modern play; in a dance drama the dancer has no speaking role and does not sing either. However, traditional Chinese drama, including Beijing Opera, is a kind of entertainment which incorporates spoken parts, singing, dancing and acrobatics. An all-round top-notch Beijing Opera performer, for instance, must be good-looking or attractive when appearing in make-up, of pleasing physical proportions, with a pair of expressive eyes and a rich variety of facial expressions. Whether of the warrior type or not, an actor must undergo years of fundamental training in martial skills so that every movement on the stage is gracefully and precisely executed and every pose assumed at the end of a movement makes the performer resemble a piece of well-executed sculpture, ploys the dialect of a particular locality, with a particular musical style and repertory typical of that area. In costuming, making-up and the styles of acting, they are more or less the same, except that some are more refined while others are less polished or even crude. Beijing Opera was the product of the merging in Beijing of Anhui and Hubei opera styles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Acting in Beijing Opera is not subjected to the limitations of time and space; here symbolism is essential. Since some activities in everyday life cannot possibly be reproduced on the stage, Beijing Opera gives expression to them in a symbolic way. Thus, particular bodily movements signify opening a door, entering or leaving a room, going upstairs or down, climbing. A mountain or wading across a stream. Circling the stage, whip in hand, suggests riding a horse; riding in a carriage is represented by an attendant holding flags painted with a wheel design on either side of the performer; walking in a circle indicates a long journey; four soldiers and four generals flanking both sides of the stage represent an army several thousand strong; two men somersaulting under a spotlight shows the audience how they are groping and fighting in the dark; and on a stage bare of scenery, a performer holding an oar or paddle and doing knee bends to simulate a heavy swell, demonstrates travelling on a boat.
Beijing Opera
