Facts about China

In a giant country like China with its cultural continuity of several Millennia, there have understandably
been and still are countless different forms of the performing arts. Many of the basic elements of
Chinese theatre, i.e. poetry, music, dance, and martial arts, are known to have flourished already during
the first Millennium BC. By approximately 1000 AD these early genres intermingled with each other and
evolved towards a sung theatre form with fixed role categories. It was characterised by a tendency to
combine dance-like movements and also sometimes movements from the martial arts with sung text. So
in the West it is usually called Chinese “opera”.

In the early centuries AD play scripts were written. In the beginning they were based on an oral story-
telling tradition and didactic Buddhist stories (bianwen). These archaic “dramas” heralded the rich
tradition of Chinese drama literature with its heydays in the Yuan (Yüan) dynasty (1279–1368) and the
Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

In different parts of China local opera forms evolved with their own characteristic dialects and types of
melody. A division into two major cultural regions, the northern and the southern, occurred around
1000 AD, which led to a kind of competition between the northern and the southern operatic styles. It
was the southern kunqu or Kun Opera (K’un-ch’ü) which regained the status of a “national” style among
the educated elite during the 16th and 17th centuries. The status was inherited in the middle of the
Qing dynasty (Ch’ing) (1644–1911) by a new, more popular form of opera, the Peking Opera.

The western impact started to be felt in theatrical life in the Republic of China (1912–1949). During the
early periods of the People’s Republic (1949–) traditional opera was still performed, although the
emphasis was on its didactic use and propaganda value. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) all
traditional arts were banned and a new form of theatre was created and propagated by the Communist
Party. It was the Revolutionary Model Opera.

After the Cultural Revolution traditional theatre forms were revived and now China has an abundance of
theatrical forms, starting from Kun and Peking Operas to hundreds of local opera forms, to spoken
theatre and to western-style opera and ballet groups, as well as, more recently, to experimental theatre
and dance.

The Early History of Chinese Theatre

As elsewhere in the world, it is also in China that the origins of the theatrical arts seem to lie in early
religious rituals, in China most probably in shamanistic rites. China has always been an exceptionally
history-conscious culture with a long continuity, and the Chinese system of writing was invented very
early. Thus it is no wonder that a relatively substantial amount of written evidence of the theatrical
tradition exists from the early periods. It gives enlightening, yet fragmentary, information about the
development of early performance traditions.
It is known that during the Shang dynasty (c. 1766–1066 BC) hunting dances as well as dances imitating
animals were performed. As has been already discussed on several occasions, the dances imitating
animals and employing the so-called “animal movements” have been common in most cultures. In fact,
animal movements still form an integral part of many martial art, dance and theatre traditions today.

The so-called chorus dances were popular during the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (c. 1066–221 BC). They were
divided into two groups: wu dances performed by men and xi (hsi) dances performed by women.
Besides religious rituals, there were less ceremonial types of performances, such as comic numbers
performed by clowns and dwarfs as well as displays of acrobatic skills.

Martial art demonstrations or shows were popular and, as elsewhere in Asia, in China, too, many of the
movements employed by dances originated from the martial art techniques. It seems most probable
that the early martial art systems formed the basis from which the rich tradition of Chinese martial
operas and their acrobatic fighting scenes as well as the 20th century gongfu (kung-fu) movies later
developed.

Baixi or “A Hundred Entertainments”

Before the beginning of our era it was customary at the court and at public festivities to organise grand-
scale spectacles called baixi (pai-shi) or a hundred entertainments or hundred games circus. They were
kinds of variety shows featuring mimes, jugglers, magicians, acrobats, song, musical recitals, and martial
art demonstrations. They also featured dancing girls wearing dresses with long, fluttering silk sleeves.
Their dances may have been the predecessors of later opera scenes, in which female characters
elegantly operate their extra long white silk sleeves, the so-called “water sleeves”.

Besides the textual sources, there exists a great deal of visual evidence of early theatrical forms.
Contemporaneous terracotta tomb statuettes include hundreds of lively depictions of different kinds of
performers. They show mime actors, acrobats, jugglers, musicians, sometimes even whole orchestras,
and, of course, dancing girls with their flying sleeves. These female statuettes seem to indicate that the
aesthetics of female dances in China, which is dominated still today by linear beauty created by sleeves,
ribbons and scarves undulating in the air, has an extensive history indeed.

The Early Plays

Early dramas combined mime, stylised movement and a chorus. The chorus described the action which
was enacted by dancer-actors. A play called Daimian (tai-mien) or Mask tells about a prince whose
features were so soft that he was obliged to wear a terrifying mask in battle in order to scare the enemy.
Later, in the Tang (T’ang) (618–907) period the play also found its way to Japan.
A play called Tayao niang (t’a-yao niang) or The Dancing, Singing Wife comes from the 6th century AD
and is a story about domestic violence. The husband is a drunkard, who beats his poor wife. Finally,
however, he is punished for his misbehaviour. From Central Asia or even from India originates a dance
play called Botou (Po-t’ou) or Head for head. It is about a youth whose father was killed by a tiger. The
youth, in a white mourning costume, wanders a long way over the hills and through the valleys in search
for the killer tiger. During his wanderings he sings eight songs and is finally able to avenge his father’s
fate.

The play scripts of those early dance plays, which also seem to combine sung passages, are now known
mainly through sources from the Tang period (618–907). Studying them is a kind of detective work
where textual sources are used side by side with visual ones. Possibly some of the characteristics of later
Chinese operas can be traced back to these early plays.

The fighting scenes appear to originate in the early martial arts systems, whereas the female movement
vocabulary of later operas has retained the use of the long sleeves which dominate the female dancing
tomb figurines. Even some of the themes of the early plays have continued to be essential for countless
later operas, such as filial piety and other themes related to the feudal, ethical codes.

As has already been mentioned, speculation about how the early plays were actually performed is based
on textual and visual sources. No archaic theatrical forms exist anymore in China, where the communist
regime consistently destroyed forms of culture that were regarded as feudalistic. If one would like to get
an idea of the early Chinese forms of performance, one should, perhaps, turn to the neighbouring
cultures of Korea and Japan, which have preserved traditions from early periods when they had close
contacts with imperial China and were profoundly influenced by it.

Regional Operas

AN ABUNDANCE OF OPERA STYLES

Around China there is a plenitude of different styles of regional operas. These regional or local operas
are called difangxi (ti-fang-hsi). According to different estimations and ways of classification, their
number varies from approximately 100 to 360. They differ mainly in their dialects and in music and in
their accompanying orchestras. Differences can also be found in their repertoire, character categories,
costuming and make-up conventions etc.

Kunqu came first, and then the Peking opera attained the status of a “national style”. Although kunqu
was originally a southern opera style and Peking opera at the beginning a predominantly northern style,
they both gradually spread around the country. Local operas, however, bear characteristics of the
dialects and melodies of certain provinces, and although they can occasionally be seen elsewhere as
well, they are mainly performed in the areas where they were created and developed. In this connection
only a handful of regional styles can be discussed.
Bangzi Opera or the Clapper Opera

Bangzi opera (bangzi qiang, pang-tzû ch’iang) or the clapper opera was probably created in Central
China, in the border area between the provinces of Shaanxi (Shen-shi) and Shanxi (Shan-shi). It is
mentioned for the first time in literary sources in the 16th century. It seems possible that in the
beginning it was a style performed only in a very small area, but it spread in the 17th century to North
and South China as well.

As has been discussed before, Chinese is a tonal language and thus, when it is sung, its relationship with
the accompanying music is symbiotic. The tones, according to whether they are level, ascending, or first
descending and then ascending, or descending in pitch, affect the actual meaning of the word. In some
Chinese operas, the text is usually written for stock melodies that already exist. In the clapper opera,
however, the text is written first and then the music is composed to suit the text. This gave greater
freedom for rhythmic patterns as well as to the verses employed.

A dominant instrument in the orchestra accompanying the clapper opera is the bangzi (pang-tzû)
clapper, a small, rectangular plate made of date palm, which is beaten with a wooden stick. The
orchestra also includes string and plucked instruments. The most important melody instrument is a
wooden banhu (pan-hu) violin. The vocal technique is regarded as more mellow and natural than the
singing in the Peking opera. The costumes of the clapper opera, similarly as in the Peking opera, are
based on Ming-period dresses.

The clapper opera is still widely performed today, particularly in North China, where several local
variants of it have evolved. The most famous clapper opera actor ever was Wei Changsheng (Wei
Ch’ang-sheng), who became a star actor in Peking in the late 1770s and early 1780s, just before the
Peking opera was born. He was a celebrated impersonator of female roles, and was later also able to
include amazing acrobatics in his performances.

Yue opera, All-Female Opera

Yue opera (Yüeh-chü) or Shaoxing opera (Shao-hsing-chü) is the most recent form of the regional opera
styles in China. In fact, because of its great popularity around China, it could almost be regarded as a
kind of national style today. It originates from the indigenous music theatre tradition of a small locality
called Shaoxing (Shao-hsing), near Shanghai, in the early 20th century. Its local folk melodies were
accompanied by a simple ban (pan) clapper.

In 1916 a troupe led by an actor called Wang Jinshui (Wang Chin-shui) started to perform this type of
theatre for the many Shaoxing people living in Shanghai. Its orchestra was gradually expanded to include
plucked instruments and later even other kinds of instruments, although the melodies performed still
originated from the Shaoxing region.
The performances were successful, but it was only in 1923 that yue opera began to take on its dominant
characteristics. It was then that female singer-actresses started to be trained. From 1929 onwards all-
female troupes appeared in Shanghai, and the novelty that operas were performed by all-female casts
was an instant and long-lasting success, and it is still the trademark of the yue opera. This practice is due
to the fact that mixed groups, including both male and female actors, were forbidden during the Qing
(Ch’ing) dynasty (1644–1911), and it was only in 1930 that actresses could finally appear on the Peking
opera stage.

The stories staged as yue operas are mostly romantic love stories. Acrobatics and fighting scenes were
rarely included in them in older times. Today male actors may also play some of the roles of elderly men,
while the young men’s roles are generally preformed by actresses. Fighting scenes and acrobatics are
now also sometimes adopted from the Peking opera practices. On the modern yue stage sets with
sugary-sweet painted backdrops are often used, and the costuming tends to represent a kind of semi-
historical fantasy style in pastel colours.

Well-known stories performed in the yue style include Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (Liang Shan-po yü
Chu Ying-t’ai) or The Butterfly Lovers. It is a kind of Romeo and Julia story about young love, which
cannot find fulfilment. An early movie based on a yue version of this story was the first opera film
produced in China. Other romances often seen on the yue stage include The Dream of the Red Chamber
(Honglou meng, Hung-lou meng) and The Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiang ji, Shi-hsiang chi).

Canton Opera

The western term “Canton opera” refers to an opera style typical of the region of the southern coastal
city of Guangdong, also called Canton. The Chinese name of this style is, when written in Latin script, the
same as the name of the all-female yue opera, i.e. yueju (Yüeh-chü). In Chinese, these names are,
however, written differently. To avoid confusion, only the name “Canton opera” is used here.

Canton opera was taking shape in the 17th century when the kunqu and an older form of the southern
nanxi theatre (Yiyang qiang, I-yang ch’iang) merged together, while some of the melodies were adapted
from Cantonese folk music. A crucial impetus was received when an actor exiled from Peking, called
Zhang Wu (Chang Wu), founded a guild for actors near Canton. It is still regarded as a kind of shrine of
the Canton opera. Canton opera was further enriched by a musical style called pihuang.

By the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1944) the Canton opera, a style of a cosmopolitan commercial
centre, received even more external influences. New plays were written and the costuming was partly
modernised. One reason for these many innovations may be the fact that, in a big, international city like
Canton, opera was forced to struggle for its survival with new forms of entertainment, including movies.
In this competition Canton opera’s strategy was to assimilate the new trends. New stories, both Chinese
and western, were adapted to the opera stage. Realistic stage sets, lighting effects and modern
costumes were common, and the orchestra was expanded with western instruments, such as violins,
guitars and even saxophones.
Canton is the city in China that had the earliest contacts with the western world. It was also the place
from where many Chinese immigrants moved to other parts of the world, to Hong Kong, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Thus it is no wonder that Canton was also greatly influenced from
outside China. According to one estimation, some one thousand new Canton operas were created
during the early 20th century. Their stories were based on older plays, traditional Chinese literature,
western literature, and on movies, both Chinese and western.

Chuan Opera, the Style of Sichuan

The origins of the Sichuan Opera or Chuan Opera (Chuanju, Ch’uan-chü) can be traced to a Ming-period
(1368–1644) combination of two different traditions. They were the Ming-period yiyang and the local
musical tradition. Later, the pihuang musical system was also added to this style, which evolved into an
independent opera style at the beginning of the 20th century.

What is exceptional in the history of Chinese opera is that even at the beginning of the 20th century,
when actors in China were regarded as low-class citizens, the training of the chuan actors also included
general education and, furthermore, physical punishment of the students was forbidden. These early
attitudes may be reflected even today in the sophisticated artistry of chuan acting.

The vocal technique of chuan opera sounds more natural, compared, for example, with the singing in
Peking Opera. The acting style is also less stylised. The role of the painted face characters is different
than it is in Peking Opera and only a few, if any, acrobatic fighting scenes are included in the chuan
operas.

A unique speciality of the chuan opera is the use of thin silken masks, which can be changed in front of
the audience in the blink of an eye with the aid of hidden threads and strings. When several layers of
such masks are used one on top of the other, the actor can change his face and identity just by turning
his head. The effect is indeed magical. This technique is often employed in the ghost operas, so popular
in the chuan tradition. How exactly this intricate mask technique functions is still a well-guarded secret
of the chuan professionals today.

Nuo Opera

The old forms of shamanistic mask theatre performed in remote villages and rural areas compose their
own archaic group among the styles of Chinese opera. One of them is called nuo opera (Nuoxi, No-hsi).
It is still performed in faraway villages in the province of Anhui. During the Chinese New Year
celebrations the villagers take their robust masks out of the trunks and perform mask plays in order to
drive away evil spirits. Nuo performances combine singing, dialogue, dance, and a simple musical
accompaniment.
“Theatre of the Capital” or the Peking Opera

A CREATION OF THE QING DYNASTY (1644–1911)

During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) China was again ruled by foreigners, this time by the Manchus.
They, however, greatly appreciated many aspects of Chinese culture and thus the Qing dynasty was, in
fact, a fruitful period for the arts. The beginning of the dynasty was overshadowed by riots and revolts
but a long period of peace began during the reign of the art-loving Emperor Kangxi (K’ang-hsi) (who
ruled 1662–1722).

The popularity of the sophisticated southern kunqu or kun opera was already declining. It was still
admired by the educated elite, but its southern dialect and complicated lyrics made it difficult to be
appreciated in North China. There, audiences preferred their own regional styles with familiar dialects,
stories and melodies. Many regional opera styles from different parts of the country gained popularity in
Peking at the beginning of the new dynasty.

The opera-loving Emperor Qianlong (Ch’ien-lung) (who ruled 1736–1795) invited troupes from the
province of Anhui to the capital to perform their local style, the bangzi opera or the clapper opera,
which has already been discussed above. They performed at the Emperor’s eightieth-birthday
celebrations, but their performances proved so successful that the troupes stayed on, becoming
increasingly popular.

Over a period of time they began to adapt the technical characteristics of other local styles. One very
important person in this process was the bangzi actor Cheng Changgeng (Ch’eng Ch’ang-keng), who, in
his performances, combined elements from, among others, the kunqu and the clapper opera. After an
evolution spanning decades the fusion process led to a new form of opera, called jingju (ching-chü) or
“theatre of the capital”. In the West it is known as the Peking Opera.

In the beginning this new style was known only in the capital, where it gained great favour in the reign
of the Empress Dowager Cixi (Tz’û-hsi) (1835–1908). In the 1860s mobile troupes of performers also
started to perform Peking Opera outside the capital area. It spread around the country and thus gained
its status as a “national style”. In 1919 Peking Opera was performed for the first time outside China, in
Japan. Soon Peking Opera troupes were also visiting the United States and Russia, taking this art form to
within reach of western audiences and theatre reformers, such as Brecht, Stanislavsky, Craig etc. Peking
Opera is still today the most widely studied and performed traditional form of theatre in China.

Peking Opera Plays

In the process of constructing the new Peking Opera, many elements were adopted from the former
“national style”, the kunqu. There are, however, also clear differences between these two styles. As
stated already, kun operas employ southern melodies as well as sophisticated and complex poetry.
Because the poetic scripts were usually performed from the beginning to the end, the plays were often
very long. To be fully appreciated kunqu required a deep knowledge of literature.
In Peking Opera the written play is generally only a kind of working script, not a piece of literature. It
consists of basic plots which have been abstracted from different sources, such as older kunqu plays,
from popular stories, historical romances, and themes from storytellers’ repertory. Generally speaking,
the authors remained anonymous and in many cases the scripts were compiled by actors.

The scripts include only a very few, if any, stage directions. This is probably because they were written in
the context of established theatrical conventions which were familiar to all the performers and the
audience. The dialect used by the Peking actors is predominantly Mandarin Chinese, although it contains
elements from other dialects as well.

The Peking opera plays can be divided into two basic groups. They are the wenxi (wen-hsi), or the
“civilian plays” and the wuxi (wu-hsi) or the “martial plays”. The wen plays deal with people’s everyday
lives, and often include love stories. The wu plays are regularly based on the historical stories of heroic
battles and they may have patriotic overtones. One popular source for this kind of plays is the famous
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sanguo yanyi (San-kuo yen-i).

The Manchu rulers were originally warriors, and thus the wu plays suited their taste better than
emotional wen plays. The wu plays require vigorous, often violent action, such as fighting, acrobatics,
sword display etc. Thus it was through the wu or the martial repertory, which dominates the Peking
opera repertory, that the martial arts and acrobatics became an inseparable element of the Peking
Opera.

Peking Opera repertory can further be divided according to which skills or aspects are emphasised in the
plays. Thus one can speak of, for example, “singing plays”, “recitation plays”, “plot plays”, “fighting
plays” etc. In the Peking opera tradition it is very common that whole plays are not always shown from
the beginning to the end. Instead, a performance can concentrate on one act of a whole opera. Kinds of
multi-act performances, called zhexi (che-hsi), are also very common. They consist of famous highlights
or single acts from popular operas.

Spaces for Theatre

Chinese opera has been performed on several kinds of stages, from simple tea houses to temporary
stage structures put up in market places or country fairs, and to court theatres, to private chamber
theatres, and from the beginning of the 20th century, most often in the western kind of large theatre
houses.

There exist good examples of old stages and theatre houses around China. Several small pavilion-like
stages belonging to a temple or a private palace still exist, and imperial, three-storied stage structures
with stage machinery can be seen in Beijing, both in the Forbidden City and at the Summer Palace. The
most famous of the Qing-dynasty private tea-house theatres is at the 18th century residence of Prince
Gong, in Beijing. The so-called tanghui (t’ang-hui) or performances at private parties, in spaces not
designed for performances, have also been popular.
A theatre space typical of the early phase of Peking Opera was the so-called xiyuan (hsi-yüan) or “opera
courtyard”. There, a square stage was surrounded by the audience on three sides. The performances
could last the whole day. Later, in a type of theatre called the “old style theatre”, the wooden stage
floor was covered with a thick woollen carpet to make the acrobatic scenes safer for the performers. At
the rear of the stage hung an embroidered curtain, which was the private property of the leading actor
of the day. Seeing the curtain, audiences knew who was going to play the lead.

During the heyday of Peking Opera, at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th
century, the opera activities were centred on the Qianmen Gate Tower area, in the old commercial
centre of Peking. There were some ten theatre houses and hundreds of important Peking Opera artists
lived and practised their art there.

From the 1950s onward Chinese opera has increasingly been staged in huge theatre houses and cultural
palaces constructed during the Communist regime. This has affected Chinese opera in many ways. Some
performance practices have been altered, curtains are used between acts or even scenes, and modern
lighting technologies are employed. The most disastrous effect created by the huge performance spaces,
completely alien to the intimate scale of Chinese operas, is the use of microphones and amplifiers. It not
only destroys original sounds and the balance of the operas, but also restricts some of the dance-like
movements of the actors.

The Stage of Imagination

Peking Opera, like other traditional Chinese opera styles, employs non-naturalistic ways of conveying
stories. The performances rely upon symbolic presentation, in which illusions are created by non-
realistic acting rather than by illusionary stage sets. Chinese opera stage is an empty space, or a kind of a
plastic space, which by means of acting technique and verbal hints can turn from a forest to a palace or
from a poor hut to heavenly spheres.

Traditionally, a raised platform which extends forward, with three sides facing the audience, has served
as the opera stage. Behind the stage hangs a back curtain with two curtained doors leading backstage.
The left door was used for the entrées and the right door for the exits. When making their entrances the
characters usually introduce themselves by hinting at some of their main characteristics, such as “I am a
selfish scholar called so and so” or “I am poor orphaned girl called so and so” etc.

After the introduction, the characters jump into the drama and into the imaginary world of its story. By
their words or, more often, movements and gestures, they create the spatial surroundings required. For
example, gestures of pushing and pulling indicate opening or closing a door or a window. A certain kind
of movement of the body and legs indicates “stepping over a threshold” etc. Stage props are used very
economically.

Sometimes necessary visual elements, such as stylised clouds, mountains or, for example, a city gate,
painted on cloth or cardboard, are carried by the actors or stage assistants. Two pieces of cloth carried
on both sides of an actor indicates that the person is travelling on a sedan chair, and waving flags
informs the audience that there is a horrendous storm going on.

Generally, however, all that is needed on a Peking Opera stage is a table and a couple of chairs. The
space around them may be a courtroom, a study, a palace etc. This is indicated by the colours and
patterns of the silken covers of the furniture. For example, if the silken chair covers and tablecloth have
a dragon pattern, the scene is taking place in an imperial palace, but if the covers are greenish or blue
with orchid patterns, the place is a scholar’s study etc.

The placement of the furniture can also have different meanings. If a chair is placed in front of a table,
the audience knows that the scene is set in an ordinary home, but if it is behind the table, it indicates
that it is question of an official or a ceremonial occasion, possibly in a palace or in a courtroom.

Thus, in a traditional performance the whole illusion of the space and different places and surroundings
mainly depends on the hints given by actors employing their various acting skills. However, in the big,
modern theatre houses, stage sets, lighting technology etc. are now used. This process started in the
international city of Shanghai, where the modern theatre houses and the use of setting appeared from
1908 onwards.

The Actor’s Skills

In traditional Chinese theatre the acting technique or, to be precise, “actor’s skills” are called xigong
(hsi-kung). They refer to the acting tradition and methods formulated during the centuries. They are
divided, for example, into the hand, the eye, the body, and the feet techniques, all of them related to
physical expression, such as acting, mime, dancing, and acrobatics. Besides those skills, actors must also
master very demanding singing and recitation skills.

In addition to these main methods, the actor must have a command of several sub-techniques or
“supporting techniques”. They include, for example, the skills related to the handling of certain parts of
the costume, such as the long white silken extensions of the sleeves, the so-called “water sleeves”
shuixiu (shui-hsiu). Though it seems very easy and natural, handling them is actually very demanding,
and students practise it for years. These silken strips extend the actual movement of the actor. They can
also indicate several things, such as talking sides or presenting gifts, or they can simply express powerful
emotions.

Other supporting techniques are the fan skills, related to the handling of the fan, which can be used in
many ways, for example as a symbol of many things, such as a wine cup, a butterfly etc. Further skills
with a beard refer to the many ways in which an artificial beard can be manipulated. Anger,
thoughtfulness, hesitation and many other moods can be expressed by the handling of the beard.
Further supporting skills are related, for example, to the manipulating of the hair and the handkerchief.
In the non-naturalistic, symbolic acting style of the Chinese theatre, many things can be told or
illustrated by these supporting skills. A good example is the riding whip skills. Riding a horse is indicated
by a riding whip the actor holds in his hand. The colour of the whip indicates the horse’s colour, and the
horse’s movements, such as galloping, running for a long time, the horse’s tiredness etc., are indicated
by the movements of the whip combined with the actor’s other body movements.

Peking Opera professionals divide the acting skills into three realms. “being accurate” indicates a correct
combination of the skills, while the second realm, “being beautiful”, focuses not only on the technical
execution, but on the interpretation’s aesthetic values and the accuracy of the portrayal of the
character. The highest of the three realms, “having a lingering charm”, is more difficult to put in words
since the highest quality of artistic performance often seems to avoid exact definitions. For example, the
singing of a certain star actor has been described as “being gentle as weeping and lingering as a thread”.

Theatre of Types

In the stylised and symbolic world of Chinese opera the roles represent abstractions of human
attributes. Actors do not aim to create psychological portrayals of certain individuals. Instead, they rely
on fixed personality types whose specific qualities are taken for granted by the audience. The way in
which these qualities are then interpreted reveals the actor’s skills and the level of the actor’s artistry.

The entry of emperor Xiang Yu (Hsiang Yü) in the opera Farewell to my Concubine, Bawang bie ji (Pa-
wang pieh chi).

As has been seen in previous chapters, the role categories of Chinese theatre developed during a long
period lasting, according to literary sources, over a thousand years. Starting from the Tang period
onwards, different theatrical styles employed more and more role categories with their fixed
characteristics, types of make-up and costuming.

The Peking Opera inherited its four main role categories from kunqu and other earlier theatrical forms
and yet enriched them, for example, by also adding among them martial role types with acrobatic skills.
The four role categories are sheng or the male roles, dan or the female roles, jing or the “painted face”
roles, and chou, the comic roles. Within these main categories there are further several subdivisions to
define the type variations of the main character.

The main sub-categories of the sheng or the male roles are laosheng or the middle-aged or old men,
usually with beards, and the xiaosheng or young, handsome men, most often scholars. The old man type
sings with a rather low, natural voice, while the young man blends in his singing both natural voice and
falsetto, which indicates his youth. Furthermore, the male roles, as is the case in all other role types as
well, are divided into civilian and martial types. The martial men, or the wusheng, usually wear a
pompous costume imitating ancient armour. Some of the higher military officers have pheasant plumes
in their headgear, sometimes even two metres long. Their expressive handling is a special skill of its
own.
Other special skills, characteristic of martial types, whether belonging to the male, female, comic or
painted face categories, are the martial arts, acrobatics and virtuoso displays of skills related to
weaponry. The martial actors practise these skills year after year so that they can master short acrobatic
and fighting sequences from which longer scenes are then constructed. The climax of a military scene
often takes the form of a breathtaking display featuring dynamic tumbling and somersaults while swords
and spears fly in the air. These thrillingly fast scenes are accompanied by feverish percussion music.

Similarly to the male roles, the dan or the female roles are also divided into the civilian and wudan or
martial role types. Otherwise, the three major sub-categories of the dan roles are the ginyi or the gentle
and often noble young lady, the huadan or vivacious, often coquettish woman, and the laodan, or old
woman. All of them have their own acting and singing techniques.

The noble young woman, the ginyi, or the so-called “blue-robed woman” (she often wears a black robe
with blue borders) sings in a high falsetto. This singing technique is due the fact that until the 1920s only
male actors were allowed to perform on the Peking Opera stage and thus actresses must use the
falsetto technique of female impersonators of older times. The ginyi actresses concentrate on singing,
graceful dance-like movements and masterful handling of the water sleeves.

Instead of singing, the huadan or vivacious female type concentrates on mime acting. These lively
characters usually belong to the class of ordinary people. The laodan or old woman type is characterised
by its natural voice range and body language which indicates old age.

Both the old man and old woman types wear barely any make-up, only some lines around the eyes and
the mouth. The young woman role types paint their faces first with matte white. Then deep red is added
around the eyes, the nose and on the sides of the face. The deep red is graded with the white of the
cheeks and the nose. This pinkish make-up, shaded with deep red and highlighted with white, indicates
beauty and the glow of youth. The make-up of the youthful male character is also approximately similar.

The most spectacular types of make-up belong, as the name “pained face” already indicates, to the jing
characters. In China the types of facial make-up have a history of at least over a thousand years. The
early types of make-up were simple; the face was painted red, black etc. Over the centuries the make-up
became more complex and reached its culmination in the hundreds of intriguing make-up designs of the
Peking Opera’s jing characters.

According to these “face maps”, all recorded in special pictorial manuals, the audience immediately gets
information about the inner qualities of the characters portrayed. A red face, for example, indicates
loyalty and uprightness, a black face a forthcoming character, a blue face pride and bravery while a
white face indicates cunning and treachery. The most surprising of these types of make-up are those in
which all the traces of the anatomy of the human face are faded away by a completely abstract facial
painting reminiscent of a colourful tornado or of some kind of cosmic explosion.
Similarly, as the other role types, the jing characters are also divided into martial and civilian characters.
The wu jing characters concentrate on the martial arts while the wenjing concentrate on singing. Their
voice range is natural, approximately equivalent to a western baritone voice. In the early period of the
Peking Opera it was the jing actors who were the leading stars of this art form. Heroic generals, patriotic
heroes, legendary rebels, gods and other mythological characters are included in this role category. They
often wear thick-soled shoes, which add as much as 20 cm to the actors’ height, creating the impression
of larger-than-life personalities.

The fourth basic role category of the Peking Opera is the comic chou characters. The military clowns,
wuchou, are trained in acrobatic and martial arts while the civilian clowns or the wenchou concentrate
on mime. The white patch surrounding their noses and eyes makes the chou characters easy to
recognise. The chou category is regarded as the oldest of the character types and has its origin in the
adjutant play of the Tang dynasty. They include all kinds of personalities, such as farmers, traders,
playboys, high-ranking officials and sometimes even emperors. They can be either good or bad
characters. They do not often sing; instead, they use pure colloquial language so that their jokes are easy
to understand.

As mentioned, within these four basic role types, there are further several subdivisions to define the
type variations of the main characters. The costuming of all the character types is based on Ming-period
prototypes. In the same way as their facial make-up, their costumes also give the audience information
about the personality, profession and social status of the characters. In the Palace Museum in the
Forbidden City in Beijing, there is a Qing-dynasty manual which lists the costumes of the characters in
some one thousand Peking Operas.

The Social Status of the Actors

As in many other cultures in older times, the social status of actors in China was very low, too. Whether
they belonged to the private troupes of educated men, traders or officials or to the wandering troupes,
the actors were regarded merely as prostitutes. Their social status is reflected in the fact that for a long
time the actors were excluded from the official examinations. It was generally accepted that the actors
did not choose their profession, but were forced to do so because of poverty or, for example, because
the head of the family has received a criminal sentence.

There were periods when famous actresses who were courtesans were widely admired and some high-
class admirers even married them. However, these kinds of marriages were not common, because of the
actor’s reputation of having low morals. Mixed companies, with both men and women, were popular in
the 13th and 14th centuries, but after that they were, due the strict moral codes of Neo-Confucianism,
banned.
During the Ming dynasty the tendency was already towards companies with performers of one sex only.
The later world of the Peking Opera was completely a male domain. Until the 1920’s the actors, the
playwrights and the musicians were all male, and so was the audience. As all the actors were men, they
also performed the female roles. Boys and men excelling at impersonating female roles were a constant
headache for officials, since attractive actors were popular sex objects among the homo- or bisexual
male audience. Thus, many actors were obliged to serve high-ranking admirers with their sexual favours.

There were also, of course, personalities among actors who were admired by all levels of society purely
because of their artistry and innovations. The beginning of the Peking Opera was the golden age of jing
actors, who often played the roles of elderly statesmen, emperors, rebels and ministers. For decades
they overshadowed the dan or the female impersonators. One of the brightest stars of the Peking Opera
stage was Mei Lanfang (1894–1961). He not only brought the dan roles into focus again, but in many
ways he influenced the Peking Opera’s development in the Republic of China and even during the early
periods of the People’s Republic.

Mei Lanfang, a Legendary Female Impersonator and an Innovator

Mei Lanfang is without doubt the most celebrated Peking Opera actor, both at home and abroad. He
was born in Peking into a famous dan, or female impersonator, family in 1894. He began learning acting
at the age of eight and made his stage debut at the age of ten. He created a sensation in Shanghai,
where he worked for a longer period absorbing the new trends of the international city’s theatrical life.

He was a specialist of the noble female type, but was able to expand his acting to some other female
types as well. He admired the old kunqu and was instrumental in its revival. However, he also created
completely new dances, which are still popular today. He also created “modern” operas with stage sets,
contemporaneous costuming etc. He was the head of the first Peking Opera troupe ever to perform
abroad. In 1919 he performed in Japan and in 1929 in the United States.

His performances, especially those in the Soviet Union in 1935, had far-reaching consequences, since
among the full houses there were several important pioneers of modern theatre, such as Konstantin
Stanislavski, Bertolt Brecht, and Gordon Craig. Brecht found many elements in Mei Lanfang’s art which
inspired his theories of the Epic Theatre.

During the early period of the People’s Republic Mei Lanfang was instrumental in deciding the fate of
the traditional Chinese theatre. As a celebrated artist and an influential, cultural and political personality
he was able to persuade Chairman Mao of Peking Opera’s value as the creation of the people of China,
while at the same time the Communist party was banning all art forms related to religion and the
imperial past. It is very much due to Mei Lanfang that the tradition of Chinese theatre continued
through the middle part of the 20th century.

Related article by Stefan Kuzay: A Concise History of Theatre in Imperial China

Chinese Theatre and Dance in the 20th Century

The gradual decline of the Qing Dynasty led to a long period of political unrest and turmoil. During the
period of the Republic of China (1912–1949) traditional forms of Chinese theatre were still performed
throughout the huge country. International contacts, particularly with the West, led, however, to new
kinds of experiments and innovations in the big metropolises. They include, as discussed in connection
with the period’s leading actor Mei Lanfang, modernised Peking operas, as well as completely new kinds
of forms, such as the spoken drama or huaju and the song drama or geju.

Spoken Drama and Song Drama

As in most of the Asian cultures, no tradition of spoken drama existed in China either, prior to the era of
the arrival of Western influence at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries. In
fact, the first production of Chinese spoken drama or huaju (hua-chü) was not even created in China, but
in Japan, where the interest in Western theatre bloomed slightly earlier than in China. In spring 1907
young Chinese studying in Tokyo performed the third act of La Dame Aux Camélias by Alexander Dumas
fils. The positive feedback the production received in Japan encouraged the student group, called The
Spring Willow Society, to further stage Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher. It was the beginning of the
tradition of Chinese spoken drama, which also quickly spread to Shanghai.

It is no wonder that Chinese spoken drama was born among young students and in Japan. Chinese
society was in a chaotic state, because the imperial administration was unable to renew itself to respond
to the Western commercial and political pressure which had transformed China into a kind of semi-
colony. Chinese students were looking for solutions to the problems of their own society from the
Japanese reform movement, while, at the same time, they absorbed elements from the Western
ideologies and culture.

In Shanghai there had already been earlier spoken drama performances by Western amateur groups and
the Western colonial community had built there a Western-type theatre house as early as 1866. Thus it
was in Shanghai that the theatre house with a proscenium stage first became popular. The first
Western-type theatre house, built by the Chinese themselves, was the New Shanghai Stage, which was
opened in 1908. It had a semi-circular stage in which decors and new lighting technologies were
employed

The new spoken drama in Shanghai was propagated from 1919 onwards by a group of young activists,
many of whom had studied abroad, called the May the Fourth Movement. Popular among this circle of
intellectuals were plays by Western, mainly realistic, dramatists such as Björnson, Strindberg, Ibsen and
Chekhov. New plays were also written, often designed to illustrate one central theme, such as, for
example, the oppression of women in China. The themes mainly covered social and political issues
instilling patriotism and, during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945), resistance to the
Japanese occupation.
The audiences of huaju or spoken drama were mainly limited to the educated intellectuals who already
shared a common world-view and political ideology. A debate was going on as to whether spoken drama
should completely replace the traditional forms of Chinese theatre. Gradually, however, it was agreed
that these two traditions could well live side by side.

This also led to new experiments in the field of music theatre. New plays with contemporary costumes
were performed as geju song dramas. They employed melodies and conventions from, for example, the
Peking Opera, the Canton Opera and the Sichuan Opera. As mentioned already before, Mei Lanfang also
made his experiments in the field of geju. Similarly as in the spoken dramas, the themes of geju were
also set in the present, often with anti-feudal, anti-imperialist and patriotic content.

Spoken drama abandoned the stylised and symbolical theatricalism of traditional Chinese drama forms.
Instead, the acting technique was often based on Stanislavsky’s method, in which the actors should try
to express psycho-realistically the “inner truth” of the individuals portrayed. The spoken drama
tradition, which has been popular mainly in cities and among the educated elite, has been vital
throughout the decades, and important dramatists have worked in this field.

In the beginning, huaju plays had only one act, but gradually they came to include several acts. This
process is apparent in the works of the well-known dramatist, Tian Han (T’ien Han) (1898–1968). He
started with one-act plays but later his plays grew in length. One famous play is his three-act tragedy
Death of a Famous Actor, which he wrote at the end of the 1920s. He also worked in the field of modern
Peking Opera. In his libretto, Guan Hanqin, he portrays the life of a famous Yuan-dynasty dramatist. The
story is set in a brothel milieu in which the dramatist rebels against Mongol rulers and the imperial
bureaucracy. Tian Han himself was also a brave critic of social injustice, which led to his disgrace and
imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. During the early years of the People’s Republic, however,
he acted as the chairman of the Union of Chinese Dramatists.

Hong Sheng (Hung Seng) (1894–1955) wrote a trilogy set in an agrarian context. It includes Wukui Bridge
(1939), The Smell of Rice (1931), and The Pond of the Black Dragon (1932). In 1948 Guo Moruo (Kuo
Mojo) (1892–1978), who was also a renowned historian, wrote a play called Qu Yuan (Ch’ü Yüan). It tells
about the prime minister of an ancient state, who commits suicide by drowning himself.

Maybe the most important Chinese dramatist who wrote for huaju is Cao Yu (Ts’ao Yü) (1910–). His
best-known plays include the tragedy Thunderstorm (1933), which tells about the hardships of an
authoritarian upper-class family, Sunset (1935), which is set in a brothel milieu, and Desert (1937), which
was set in the countryside. Like Tian Han, Cao Yu was also persecuted during the Cultural Revolution,
after which he acted as the chairman of the Chinese Theatre Union. One of the most popular plays in the
huaju repertory is Teahouse (1957) by Lao She (1899–1966). This almost epic play is set in a teahouse in
old Peking. It portrays the life of seventy individuals and covers half a century of their lives during the
final period of the Qing Dynasty.

Theatre and the Early Communist Party

Leftist ideologies were common among intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s. Even from its rise in the
early 1920s the Communist Party of China realised the value of theatre as a weapon for social change.
Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) set the guidelines for the Communist theatre and proclaimed complete
party control over the arts, a policy which reached its nightmarish culmination during the Cultural
Revolution in 1966–1976.

Folk arts were revised to propagate revolutionary ideas. Some of their traditional features were
maintained but much was modernised. Traditional opera styles, such as Peking Opera as well the
clapper opera and other regional forms, were used as a basis for new dramas on contemporary themes
and often aimed as propaganda against the Japanese.

New Peking operas were created. An acclaimed example is Forced Up Mountain Liang, Bishang
Liangshan (Pi-shang Liang-shan), which was based on a historical epic, Outlaws of the Marsh, Shuihu
zhuan (Shui-hu chuan). Although it portrayed events in the distant past, it acutely propagated rebellion
against the feudal system. It had its premiere in 1945.

In the same year a new geju or song drama, The White-Haired Girl, Baimao nü (Pai-mao nü) was
performed for the first time. Its music was based on traditional folk melodies and it was accompanied by
an orchestra which combined Chinese and Western instruments, while its costuming and décor aimed at
realism. It was a great success and it was later revised and finally transformed into a revolutionary
model ballet.

Theatre and Dance in the Early People’s Republic

The early phase of the People’s Republic, starting from its establishment in 1949, was an active time for
the arts, as they were employed in the construction of the new society. The social status of theatre
workers greatly improved, as they had their undeniable role in the class struggle and were no longer
regarded merely as prostitutes. The policies that Mao Zedong had formulated earlier became the
guidelines for all the arts, and also for the theatre, which was particularly appreciated for its educative
value.

Regional theatre forms were reformed, and modern forms, such as huaju or spoken drama and geju or
song drama were encouraged, of course, but only if they followed the strict official guidelines. A
completely new form of art was created, the full-scale wuju or dance drama, which clearly reflected the
close cultural ties between the People’s Republic and the Soviet Union.

Committees were set up and festivals held in order to define the exact role of theatre and dance in the
new society. In 1950 the Ministry of Culture established the Traditional Music Drama Committee to plan
a drama reform. It was agreed that even the traditional forms of theatre should be reformed so that
they promoted patriotism and served Communist ideology and revolutionary heroism.

In the same year the First Nationwide Spoken Drama Festival made the Soviet influence apparent. Many
productions reflected the psycho-realistic acting style, while realistic costumes and sets became the
norm. Spoken drama was regarded as a suitable medium with which to portray modern life with its
continuous class struggle. In 1952 the First National Music Drama Festival gathered together some 1800
performers from all over the country.

In his speech in 1956 Mao Zedong launched the famous slogan: “Let a hundred flowers blossom, and a
hundred schools of thought contend.” The following so-called “Hundred Flowers Period” was a rather
liberal time. In the same year that Mao delivered his speech, the Kun Opera was revived in the famous
production of Fifteen Strings of Cash attended by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Next year Lao She’s
spoken drama Teahouse, already discussed above, had its premiere. Many music dramas and other
spoken dramas were also created.

The year 1957 also saw the premiere of the first Chinese large-scale dance drama, The Precious Lotus
Lamp. It reflects many Western, mainly Soviet, influences. In movement vocabulary the ballet aesthetics
were combined with national elements and flavour and pas de deux duos between the male and female
leads were created in a similar way as in the Western ballet which was now also being taught in China.

Prior to 1963 the official policy was to combine the modern and the traditional and to rewrite traditional
works to reflect patriotism and Marxist ideology. Political censorship grew stricter, however, and after
1963 attitudes rapidly changed. Due to the power game manipulated by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing (Chiang
Ch’ing), herself a former actress, all traditional forms of theatre were gradually banned. The new
guidelines for theatre were announced at a festival of modern opera in Peking in 1964. Thereafter, only
operas with modern themes were favoured.

Facts about China

The Early History of Chinese Theatre

The Tang Dynasty (618–907)

The Song Dynasty (960–1279)

The Yuan Dynasty (1279–1369)

The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)

Regional Operas

“Theatre of the Capital” or the Peking Opera

Chinese Theatre and Dance in the 20th Century

The Cultural Revolution

After the Cultural Revolution

Shadow and Puppet Theatre

The Cultural Revolution

After the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) headed by the infamous Gang of Four, including
Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, all traditional forms of theatre were prohibited. Jian Qing had already inspected
some 1000 Peking operas and suggested banning most of them. Now it was the Party’s literature
committees that dictated what was allowed to be performed.

Jiang Qing interpreted Mao’s teachings extremely rigidly, which led to the politisation of theatre to an
extent that has never been seen, before or after, in the history of the arts. Five Revolutionary Model
Dramas were created by the literary circles led by Jiang Qing. They included Taking Tiger Mountain by
Strategy, Zhiqu wei Hushan (Chih-ch’ü wei Hu-shan), The Red Lantern Hongdeng ji (Hung-teng chi), Sha
Jia Creek Shajia bang, (Sha-chia pang), On the Docks Haigang, (Hai-kang) and Raid on the White Tiger
Regiment Qixi Baihu tuan, (Ch’i-hsi Pai-hu t’uan).

Jiang Qing formulated new theatrical aesthetics for these model operas. Similarly, as the earlier
traditional operas, the model operas were also based on fixed character types. However, the various
earlier types, based on their social status and inner qualities, were now replaced with character types
based solely on their class background.

These rigid stereotypes include two main categories. The revolutionary and thus “good” characters are
portrayed as standing in the middle of the stage in heroic, “revolutionary” poses, well lit with pinkish
spotlights (red being a positive colour both in the traditional and later in the Communist colour
symbolism). The “bad” characters, i.e. the class enemies, are placed at the side of the stage in ugly poses
and dimly lit by bluish light (blue often being a negative colour in traditional opera masks).

In the huge stage decors, costuming, and in make-up, “heroic realism”, were the only accepted style.
The music is a mixture of traditional Chinese and Western music since, according to Jiang Qing, Western
music was more suitable to express heroism than Chinese music. Many stage conventions, as well as
acrobatics, were retained from the traditional Peking Opera, although in the fighting scenes guns and
rifles now replaced the traditional weapons.

The first model drama was ready to be performed in 1969. The model works came to include eight
works altogether, regularly revived by the party committees to reflect the current trends of the party’s
policy. They include the above-mentioned five model dramas, one symphony (Yellow River) and two
Model Ballets, The Red Detachment of Women, Hongse niangzi jun (Hung-sê niang-tsŭ chün) and The
White-Haired Girl, which was reformed from an early song drama into a model ballet. Revolutionary
ballets make full use of Soviet-style heroic classical ballet with pointe shoes and furious leaps.

Besides the actual model works, huge spectacles combining different forms of the performing arts were
also set up. The East is Red, Dongfang hong (Tung-fang hung) was an example of this kind of
“revolutionary entertainment” which aimed to illustrate the success story of the revolution. Besides
these model works and spectacles very few other works were allowed to be performed. Actors, writers
and other theatre workers who refused to join the teams, or were otherwise regarded as anti-
revolutionaries, were persecuted and many of them died.
However, many well-known actors played in the model dramas and their artistic level was the highest
during the Cultural Revolution. No wonder that the model dramas are still rather popular today.
Together with the model ballets, they are still performed every now and then. They are all available as
recordings and even revolutionary opera karaoke was in vogue at the turn of the 21st century.

After the Cultural Revolution

The political situation and, consequently, cultural climate changed drastically after Mao Zedong’s death
and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976. In the same year a list of 41 Peking operas was published, which
could now be included in the repertory of opera troupes instead of the model dramas and ballets.
Gradually, interest in traditional forms of theatre was revived and actors and teachers who were
disgraced during the Cultural Revolution could return to their work.

In this new, more open climate, dramatists and other theatre artists have been able to handle the
traumatic decades of Chinese history. At the same time, doors have been opened to Western influences
including Western plays. Classics like Shakespeare and Moliére as well as more modern classics, such as
Brecht and Becket, have been staged regularly. In the mid-1990s Arthur Miller directed his play Death of
a Salesman in Peking.

Ballet is also thriving in modern China. Western classical ballets are performed in the biggest
metropolises. Modern dance dramas are created combining Western and Chinese dance techniques.
One very influential work in this field has been the Tales of the Silk Road, Silu huayu (Szû-lu hua-yü),
which had its premiere by the Gansu Provincial Song and Dance Ensemble in 1976.

The dance drama is set in Central Asia during the Tang period, in the region of the Silk Road connecting
China with Persia and the Mediterranean region. Full use was made of the famous Dunhuang Buddhist
cave murals, which are located in Gansu province. By studying the paintings and combining their poses
with the Russian ballet technique and Chinese acrobatics, the choreographers created a kind of
historical fantasy style which had had a great appeal for audiences, both in China and abroad.

The semi-historical, fairytale-like glamour aesthetics captured in the Silk Road ballet is regularly
employed by grand tourist spectacles, the most prominent of them being the Tang Dynasty Dances
performed in Xian, formerly Changan, the old capital of the Tang Dynasty. With its sugar-sweet
visualisation and play-back musicians and singers it has served as a model for similar kinds of tourist
entertainment throughout the country.

Western opera is also popular in China. In connection with the Beijing Olympics in 2008 a huge new
opera house was opened in Beijing. It is but one addition to the approximately 3000 theatre houses
operating in China in the early 21st century. It is impossible to get a clear picture of all the activities
going on in these theatres and among the myriads of folk groups and state-run troupes.

Spoken drama is thriving, and much new repertory for it has been written. Modern dance in China had
its roots in the Guangzhou in the 1970s. Young Chinese dancers and choreographers appear regularly at
dance festivals around the world. Performance art has its exponents in China, often in close contact with
the country’s very lively contemporary art scene. Even decades ago Chinese cinema won lasting
international acclaim, and on the movie screen the fantastic fighting scenes of Peking Opera are reborn
in the form of the kungfu action films.

Amid all these forms of theatrical art and new trends traditional theatre also flourishes. Peking Opera is
still the most popular form of opera and it is taught all over the country. As mentioned earlier, the
classical Kun Opera was included in the UNESCO List of Outstanding Examples of the World’s Intangible
Heritage in 2001. It is, of course, impossible to predict what exactly will be the fate of traditional Chinese
theatre in this time of globalisation and commercialisation.

Shadow and Puppet Theatre

Several forms of shadow and puppet theatre have flourished in China during the centuries. The history
of shadow theatre in China may indeed be very long. A legend from the 1st century BC tells about an
emperor who has lost his beloved and how a shaman brings her back to the emperor in the form of a
shadow. On the other hand, it may be possible that shadow theatre in China was born during the Tang
Dynasty (618–907), when the Buddhist monks and missionaries visualised their didactic storytelling with
shadow puppets. Textual evidence of the shadow theatre is available from the Song Dynasty (960–
1279). During that time, it is known that the shadow puppeteers formed their own guild.

Many regional variants of shadow theatre evolved during the centuries. The style of Peking shadow
theatre, for example, developed into two major styles. The western, now completely vanished, style
employed large archaic puppets, while the eastern school absorbed elements from live opera,
particularly from the southern Kun Opera. In their costuming and gestures the delicate shadow puppets
of the eastern school imitate actual kunqu actors.

Chinese shadow puppets vary in size from some 20 cm to one meter. They are cut from leather that is
treated and coloured so that they became transparent. Their legs, waists, shoulders and elbows can be
bent, and their arms are constructed from two parts. Thus the puppets can imitate human movements
when they are operated with rods behind a paper or muslin screen. Their reflections on the screen are
colourful and their finer details are chiselled in the leather as a kind of filigree ornamentation.

The execution of the puppet’s faces (which are usually shown in profile) is normally most delicate. They
follow the conventions of opera make-up. Thus the faces of beautiful ladies and handsome scholars are
usually cut so that only a narrow outline of the face is left from the leather to reflect the shape of their
faces on the screen. The faces of the painted-face characters and the clowns are done so that their
reflections carefully imitate the colourful facial make-up of the opera actors. The heads of the puppets
are usually movable so that the costuming of the characters can be changed according to the needs of
the play.
The puppets also include many fantasy figures and animals. Just as on the opera stage, so also in the
shadow theatre there are props, also cut of leather, such as chairs, tables, bushes, pens, mirrors, pipes
etc. Special effects were created by pieces of coloured glass or mirrors. With a piece of red glass the
spurting blood of a brave warrior can be projected while the cool moon with its rays can be projected
onto the screen through a metal cylinder.

Opera in Mini Size

The puppets move according to the accompanying music just as the opera actors do. The puppeteer,
who often also sings and delivers the dialogue, sits with his assistants behind the screen. The
instruments of the orchestra vary according to the regional traditions. Shadow theatre has often been
performed at temple fairs and on market places. It was also the entertainment of upper-class ladies,
who often were not allowed to move around freely or even attend opera performances. The small size
of the shadow theatre stage was suitable for setting up in private spaces, too. The plots of shadow plays
are more or less similar to opera plots. They are often based on well-known epic stories telling about
great warriors, famous wars, crime stories, romantic love etc. A director of a shadow theatre was usually
acquainted with history, literature and theatre so that he was able to create plays for the use of his own
group.

During the China mania or the so-called chinoiserie of the Rococo period Chinese shadow theatre also
became known in Europe. In China, during the Cultural Revolution, shadow theatre was also used to
illustrate revolutionary plays. In the late 20th century television and movies have reduced shadow
theatre’s popularity, and real, traditional performances are now rare. Many groups have turned to
modernised shadow figures inspired by popular children’s comics or animations.

There have been and still are in China several traditions of the three-dimensional puppet theatre. They
can be divided, according to their manipulation techniques, into three major groups.

1. Marionettes, which are manipulated from above with strings

2. Rod puppets, which are manipulated by means of wooden rods

3. Glove or finger puppets, which operated by the hand and the finger

Similarly to the shadow puppets, the three-dimensional puppets also imitate live opera actors in their
types, costumes and facial features, although their size and styles vary according to different regions. In
Chinese history annals puppets are often mentioned which provided entertainment at religious festivals
or funerary ceremonies. Among them are known to have been complicated mechanical puppets which
were able to play musical instruments or swim in the water. Generally, the repertory of puppet theatre
has been similar to that of traditional opera. The most complicated were marionettes which were
sometimes operated by means of as many as 30 strings. The largest of the puppets are certain rod
puppets the size of a human being, which are operated by several puppeteers.
Similarly to shadow theatre, puppet theatre was also originally performed in connection with different
festivities. When these festivities were banned during the People’s Republic, the original context of this
art form vanished. Since then puppet theatre has been heavily modernised, although original kinds of
performances can still be seen outside the People’s Republic, for example in Taiwan and in Southeast
Asia.