Introduction to Chinese Opera

1	The Development of Chinese Opera

2 Characters of Chinese Opera

[ Back to Top ]

Basic characters of Chinese opera includes sheng (生), dan (旦), jing (淨) and chou (丑).

Sheng	Male characters. It includes wusheng (武生), xiaosheng (小生) and laosheng (老生), etc.
Dan	Female characters. It includes zhengdan (正旦), wudan (武旦), huadan (花旦) and laodan (老旦), etc.
Jing	It is also known as “hualian (花臉)” because of its exaggerated makeup. It is a type of male characters which may have unique personalities, qualities and facial appearance.
Chou	It is a kind of comic role, also known as “xiaohualian (小花臉)”. It usually puts white powder on the bridge of the nose. It portraits many kind of characters such as kind, humorous and wicked people.

3 Music of Chinese Opera

[ Back to Top ]

Music of Chinese opera can be divided into two parts: vocal music and instrumental music. Vocal music is used to deliver the story and portrait characters while instrumental music is used to accompany and create different moods to build up the story.

Characteristics of vocal music of Chinese opera	Characteristics of instrumental music of Chinese opera
Changqiang (唱腔) Refers to the singing It can be solo, duet and chorus Nianbai (唸白) Refers to the speeches It can be speeches of yunwen (韻文) or sanbai (散白) of colloquial style	Winds and strings It mainly consists of Chinese string and wind instruments It is mainly for accompanying the singing part Percussions It creates different effects with percussion instruments In some kinds of Chinese operas, such as Cantonese opera, it takes the role of creating emotions and moods

Chinese Local Opera [ Back to top ]

1	Beijing Opera

Beijing opera is also known as “Pingju (平劇)” and “Guoju (國劇)”. It has around 200 years of history. It is one of the most important type of opera among Chinese operas. Some characters may put on masks, which is a characteristics of Beijing opera.

Style and characteristics of Beijing opera:

Changqiang	• It mainly includes erhuang (二黃) and xipi (西皮) of banqiang style (板腔體). Expressive  songs are usually sung in slow tempo with fewer words and more singing techniques. • Descriptive songs are usually sung in fast tempo with more words and less singing  techniques.
Instruments	Luogu is used throughout the opera. Percussion instruments such as naoba (鐃鈸), qiba (齊鈸), zhuangzhong (撞鐘), yunluo, bangzi are also used. Wind and string instruments include jinghu (京胡), dizi, erhu, yueqin, xuanzi (弦子), sheng, suona and haidi (海笛), etc.

• An actor who portraits Guanyu (關羽) in a Beijing opera. He has red face paint design on his face

• Mei Lan-fang (1894-1961), who is known as one of the Four Great Dan

2

Kun Opera

[ Back to top ]

Kun opera is also called Kunqu. It is popular in Jiangsu and has around 500 years of history. It is one of the oldest and most influential Chinese opera. One of the characteristics of Kun opera is to borrow features of animals to portrait the personalities of characters.
Style and characteristics of Kun opera:

Changqiang	• Its music belongs to qupai style (曲牌體). • It uses shuimo tune (水磨調), which is fine and soft, to sing.
Instruments	Qudi is the main instrument. Wind and string instruments also includes xiao, suona, sheng, pipa, sanxian and yueqin. Percussion instruments include guban, daluo, xiaoluo and tanggu (堂鼓).

3 Cantonese Opera

[ Back to Top ]

Cantonese opera is a major type of Chinese opera in Southern China. It is sung in Cantonese and is popular in Guangdong and Hong Kong. Cantonese opera focuses on singing techniques.
Style and characteristics of Cantonese opera:

Changqiang	• Its music is mainly bangzi and erhuang of banqiang style. Qupai style is also used. • Changqiang can be divided into pinghou, zihou and dahou. Pinghou uses real voice and  is mainly used by sheng. Zihou uses falsetto and is mainly used by dan. Dahou produces  loud and emotional sounds and is mainly used by wusheng.
Instruments	Wind and string instruments include gaohu, erxian and yangqin. Percussion instruments include buyu, gaobiangu (高邊鼓), shagu (沙鼓) and daba.
Characters	Characters are originally classified as “Shi Da Hang Dang (十大行當)”. “Liuzhuzhi (六柱制)” was developed in the 1930s.

• The look of a character in Cantonese opera

• Stage performance of a Cantonese opera

4	Chaozhou Opera

[ Back to top ]

Chaozhou opera refers to the opera that combines local tunes and operas from other places together. It is sung in the Teochew dialect (潮州話) and is popular in Chaozhou in the Guangdong province. It has the characteristics of Yi Chang Zhong He (一唱眾和) and bangqiang (幫腔).
Style and characteristics of Chaozhou opera:

Changqiang	It includes tuoqiang (拖腔) and bangqiang. Singing in tuoqiang means singing in melisma, which is to sing a syllable while moving between different notes. Bangqiang means a group of people singing the coda (尾聲) to support the soloist, or to sing descriptive songs in unison.
Instruments	Besides erhu, suona and muyu, special instruments such as erxian (二弦), yehu (椰胡), quluo (曲鑼), shenbo (深波) and haotou (號頭) are also used.