Seven Castles

Face Changing

                                      

May 5, 2008

 

Face changing is an ancient Chinese dramatic art. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music. Their faces are vividly colored, for they are wearing masks. However, within a fraction of a second, their masks change, revealing completely new and vibrant visages.

 

Face changing is the most amazing stunt in Sichuan Opera. A performer in a black cap and black mantle flourishes his arm and twists his head, and his face changes into a horrible black face. He turns around, and in the blink of an eye, a frivolous white face emerges. He turns around yet again, and a splendidly colored face suddenly appears!

 

Face changing first appeared in Sichuan Opera during the reign of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795). The changing of types of facial painting and colors reflect a character's mood - red representing anger and black extreme fury - just as in fairy tales.

 

Face changing was first used in a story about a hero who stole from the rich to help the poor. When feudal officials caught him, he changed his face to puzzle them and escaped as a result.

 

In the very beginning, this art was far simpler than it is today. Performers put oil on their faces and applied colorful powder from a container placed in a hidden corner on the stage. When they blew onto the powder, it would be absorbed onto the face. But in spite of these professional performances, no one knew how the artists were able to blow the powder in order to make the facial makeup so accurate in no more than a few seconds. Another method involved hiding the colored powder on the performer's palms. They would then mop it up onto their faces with oil.

 

In the 1920s, opera masters began using layers of masks made of oiled paper or dried pig bladders, which they could peel one after another in the blink of an eye. Performers change masks in quick succession with a wave of the hand or by turning around. True professionals can change some 10 masks in just 20 seconds. By raising their hand, swinging a sleeve or tossing their head, an actor uses different masks to show different emotions, expressing invisible and intangible feelings through visible and tangible masks. From green to blue, red, yellow, dark and gold, the masks of Sichuan Opera display fear, tension, slyness, desperation, outrage, and so on.

 

This marvelous stunt makes one wonder why in a country where there are so many different games of opera, only Sichuan Opera contains such an amazing stunt. Although its origin cannot be determined, face changing is not as easy to do as one might think from seeing the quick changing performed on stage. The inventor of face changing must have been very romantic.

 

Face changing was once a skill that was only passed on to men, but now there are some women face-changing performers who add a somewhat charming flavor to this historic art.

 

Hong Kong entertainment star Andy Lau once brought the traditional face-changing performance of Sichuan Opera into the limelight by persuading one of the three face-changing masters in China to accept him as an apprentice. However, as a national treasure, the secret skills of face changing cannot be revealed just to anyone. Unfortunately, face changing performances can be seen everywhere in Chengdu's entertainment venues, from nightclubs to bars, even massage centers.

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2008年05月5日 星期一 05:55】【注册】【打印】