Mesmerizing Chinese face.
In Peking Opera performances, a specific pattern drawn on the face of an opera character in a certain color is called a facial mask. With the increase of opera programs, in order to distinguish more opera characters, smart opera artists draw information on the creation of face masks from the descriptions of classical ** and storytelling artists, such as those images such as "face like heavy jujube", "face like black gold", "face like oil white", "green face and red beard" and "leopard head and eyes", etc., through artistic exaggeration and deformation, with colors and lines vividly depicted on the faces of opera characters, forming a face. It is divided into a variety of faces, according to the main color of the face, there are red, purple, white, yellow, black, blue, green, pink, gray, brown, gold, silver and other colors, the face pattern is often decorated with other colors to render the main color, and the oil is used to mix when applying makeup, and the effect is long-lasting.
For example, the red face means that the middle is brave and upright, the black face means the rough and the brutal, the blue face means the rebellious and brave, the big white face means the traitor in the abdomen, the tofu face means the humility, and the traitor uses more to wipe the face - slightly render the eyebrows and draw the eye triangle, plus one or two treacherous lines (fly feet), and smear them on the cheeks with powder, and the face is all white, like a mask, not showing people with their original faces.
After years of development, how to draw a face and what it represents has taken on the conventional stylized characteristics, and the familiar audience will know which character in which play when they look at it. It can be seen that Chinese have established historical evaluations and emotional tendencies towards specific historical figures. For example, the Peking Opera characters Cao Cao and Yan Song, who are familiar to the Chinese, wipe their white faces, indicating treacherous and domineering; And Guan Yu's red face is full of authority, indicating that he is deeply affectionate and righteous; Bao Zhengzhi's black face and eyebrows imply iron-faced selflessness.
In short, the face mask is the ultimate expression of the freehand technique of Peking Opera, and understanding the symbolic meaning of the face mask is helpful to understand the plot. As a symbol of Peking Opera culture, all kinds of face pattern handicrafts are becoming more and more eye-catching, and even in fashion design, face patterns have become a fashion element, walking on the T-shaped runway, and entering the life of modern people together with clothing.
Excerpted from Chinese Peking Opera, by Xu Chengbei, Wuzhou Communication Publishing House, 200310