SICHUAN OPERA

Sichuan Opera, as one of the Chinese traditional dramas, is one of the most representative and popular local performances. Today, we would like to share with you the charm of Sichuan Opera.

1. The origin of Sichuan Opera

In the 1600s, as people from other provinces came to Sichuan, various North and South musicals also spread to all parts of Sichuan. At that time, in order to attract more audiences and to see other good plays at the same time, some troupes began to perform on the same stage.

With the passage of time, these operas have been merged into one drama—Sichuan Opera, which also makes Sichuan Opera have an important feature — a wide range of plays.

2. Characteristics of Sichuan Opera

Sichuan Opera features lively and humorous narration, singing and acrobatics. Sichuan Opera performances are always full of wit, humor, lively dialogue, and a special local flavor.

3. Roles of Sichuan Opera

Sichuan Opera is divided into five categories: Xiaosheng, Danjue, Shengjue, Hualian, and Choujue.

Among them, Wensheng is the core of Xiaosheng. The characters in the play are mostly literati, prince and nobility. Most of them are handsome young men, like the Siegfried Prince in Swan Lake.

The role of Dan is also commonly called Xiao Dan, which refers to the role of a woman in the play, that is, a beautiful woman like Princess Odette.

More interesting is Choujue. In Chinese, it refers to a person who looks ugly. In fact, Choujue not only has a funny appearance, but is also similar to the clown. They use humor to please the audience.

4. Masks of Sichuan Opera

One of the most important features of Sichuan Opera is its mask. There is an old saying in Chinese, called "One's appearance is formed through his/her thoughts", and the mask of the actor represents the personality of the character.

For example, in the mask of Sichuan opera, red represents loyalty, integrity and courage, while black is often used to show strength and ruggedness in characters such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the Three Kingdoms. The cunning Cao Cao, on the other hand, is cold and white.

Gold and silver have illusions and a sense of mystery, and are mostly used to represent gods, demons and monsters, just like elves in mythology who have silver hair.

Colors have important meanings, which reflect the individual characteristics and the tastes of Sichuan people.

5. Face-changing of Sichuan Opera

Sichuan opera face changing is one of the stunts of Sichuan opera performance, which expresses the inner thoughts and feelings of characters. The transformation is closely related to the plot of the story.

A face that is red suddenly turns blue, a smiling mask suddenly turns sad or angry. To master this skill, the performer needs at least several months or even years of practice.

6. Development and inheritance

With the spread of Chinese culture, this ancient art form has also made new friends internationally. In our school, there are also the successors of Sichuan Opera face-changing.

Now, everybody, let's welcome Yang Zhibo from Class 6, Grade 8, to perform Sichuan Face-changing for us.

The End

As someone born and raised in Chengdu, Sichuan, we welcome you to experience the unique culture of Sichuan Opera.

Thank you!