Male Role : Sheng   Picture source: Hokkien Kong Huay XiangOpera Troupe There are 4 different types of male roles in Chinese Opera. That is, the scholarly (wen sheng) or military (wu sheng). Besides, the "sheng" may also be young (xiao) or old (lao). Thus, male roles can be divided into wen lao sheng and wen xiao sheng, wu lao sheng and wu xiao sheng. Examples are characters like Xu Xuan and Mengjiao in "Madam White Snake", Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang in "Romance Of The Three Kingdoms". The young man (xiao sheng) is usually a young scholar or prince. He is recognizable from his light make-up which is generally white with rouge highlights (to impress upon the audience his youthfulness). His attire is also characterized by long water sleeves that he uses for refined expression whenever he breaks into speech and song. Sometimes, the role of xiao sheng is played by a female actress probably because this role requires the performer to possess an excellent voice as he or she needs to handle long singing parts. The role of a scholarly xiao sheng played by a female actress. Picture source: Hokkien Kong Huay XiangOpera Troupe The old man's role (laosheng) is characterized by his flowing white beard and plain costume with dull colours and simple designs. He also applies little make-up on his face. What is interesting is that we can guess the age of a laosheng from the colour of his beard. An old man with a black beard means that he is over 40, a grey beard means that he is over 50 and a white beard means that he is over 60 years old. Can you guess the age of the laosheng in the picture? The role of laosheng is played by actors who are great vocalist with deep strong voices as they need to perform most of their parts in song. The wen lao sheng is a scholar or statesman of great dignity and refined manners. Pictures source: Hokkien Kong Huay XiangOpera Troupe This wen lao sheng is an emperor, dressed in royal yellow and wearing the jade girdle. Yellow is normally worn by the emperor or those of royal blood and traditionally the five-clawed dragon is reserved exclusively for the Son of Heaven. The Chinese priest wears a simple costume. Picture source: Hokkien Kong Huay XiangOpera Troupe Picture source: Hokkien Kong Huay XiangOpera Troupe The warrior (wu sheng) is a fierce fighter, capable with a wide range of weaponry. It is most interesting to watch the wu sheng as he is the "action man" in the opera performance. Examples are characters like Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Lu Bu and Zhou Yu in "Romance Of the Three Kingdoms". Just like the soldiers in our modern army, there are different ranks of wu sheng too! If the wu sheng wears an armour with support pennants on his back, he belongs to the armoured warrior group (changkaowusheng). This character meets his opponents primarily with weapons like long spears. However, if you are lucky enough to watch a wu sheng belonging to the close combat warrior group (duandawusheng), you will get to enjoy a wider range of acrobatics as this wu sheng appears without armour and he fights using hand-to-hand techniques rather than weapons! Thus, you can see that the performer for wu sheng must be skilled in a range of acrobatics as he needs to be able to run, jump and somersault.