Experience
of the Chinese Stage
| The
sounds of gongs and drums are deafening! Two characters
seemed to be involved in some kind of swords play on a
stage that is raised about six feet above the street.
A lot of action is happening on stage. The performers
|
 |
| are
jumping and sommersaulting. At times, they also break
out in song. |
 |
The
faces of performers are heavily painted and mask-like.
They also wear elaborate costumes and headgears which
are bright and glittering. The audience below are eating
and talking among |
| themselves
in the open air. Occasionally, they will look up when
some interesting action occurs on stage. |
It's
amazing! Do you know that there are close to 400 forms of
Chinese Opera! The more famous forms are kun opera, Beijing
opera, Sichuan opera, yue opera and etcetera opera.
Most of them tell the same stories in different dialects,
to different tunes
and sometimes with slightly different endings. Stories
center on four types of characters (jing, dan, sheng and chou)
and the opera emphasizes the dresses and faces of the characters,
rather than the sets and props. Stories are told through singing
and dramatic actions such as mime and acrobatics.
|
