Chinese Opera

Have you ever watched a Jackie Chan movie and wondered where he learned all his martial arts? It wasn’t a kung fu class, or a taekwondo dojo, rather he was a trained Chinese opera singer.

Chinese opera has a long history, dating back as far as the three kingdoms period. It was only until the Tang dynasty under emperor Li Longji reign, that opera became popular among the general public. The Beijing opera performances you see now was actually one of the latest forms of opera, created in 1790 during a performance for the emperor at the time. Before that, China had many regional opera forms, around 360. However, many of these forms have died out, leaving us with the most famous one, Beijing opera. 

The reason for Chinese opera being one of the most popular forms of entertainment is because it is a mixture of many aspects. It mixes martial arts, music, dialogue, dance, acting, and many more skills into a natural flowing performance. 

One of the key aspects of Chinese opera is how the actors dress up. The color of face paint used is actually very important in determining the characteristics of a character. For example, if a character is loyal then you would paint their face red, however if they are corrupt and evil you would paint their face white. There is also special focus on the actors’ outfits. Actors that play warriors usually have 4 flags stuck behind their silk robes, so that when they move around, the flags wave behind them. Actors that depict women have a different type of outfit. Their outfits usually consist of bright colors with sewn flower patterns on them. 

So, what goes into the selection of these actors? Obviously, they must be highly skilled. This is where we get to the dark side of Chinese opera. These old opera schools were called Li yuan, which was named after a garden that the emperors of the Tang Dynasty would get entertained in. One of these emperors, named Li Long Ji, as mentioned before, created a new form of opera, and trained people in the garden. This is why all opera schools can be called li yuan. 

Moving back to what happens in the opera schools. Back in the day, when people didn’t have much money, they would send their children to opera school. These children basically became the property of these schools and could be punished however they saw fit. So if you messed up a move in your martial arts training, you would be hit. If you messed up a note while singing, you would be hit, and in worse cases, they would torture your mouth until it started bleeding. Now imagine having to survive through that for 9 years. This is why there is the saying “9 years in opera school is worse than 10 years in prison.”

The few people that succeeded in the industry are truly remarkable. Actors don’t need any extra equipment to mimic opening doors, riding horses,  and many other movements. Unlike operas in Italy, who sometimes bring real horses on stage, Chinese opera takes pride in the minimal equipment used. However because ancient China was a patriarchal society, women weren’t allowed to play in operas. Thus, all the female roles were also acted by males. Surprisingly, it is very hard to tell the difference with all the makeup. 

One of these opera singers is the famous and influential Mei Lan Fang. Mei Lan Fan was a famous opera singing expert. He had a huge impact on the art of opera as a whole. He created his own vocal tone, different dancing techniques, and even makeup and clothing. With all these accomplishments and contributions, he traveled around the world, acting in Japan, the US, and Europe.

Unfortunately, during the cultural revolution, the art of beijing opera started to die out. That’s when famous actors like Jackie Chan had to move away from the opera industry and over to the acting industry, where he is now thriving. Bruce Lee’s dad was also an opera singer which may explain his interest in martial arts.

That’s a quick overview on Beijing opera and Chinese opera as a whole. Hope you learned something new!