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Bian Lian (traditional Chinese: 變臉; simplified Chinese: 变脸; pinyin: Biàn Liǎn; lit. 'Face-Changing') is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the more general Sichuan opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music.
An early form of Chinese drama is the Canjun Opera (參軍戲, or Adjutant Play) which originated from the Later Zhao Dynasty (319–351 AD). [10] [11] [12] In its early form, it was a simple comic drama involving only two performers, where a corrupt officer, Canjun or the adjutant, was ridiculed by a jester named Grey Hawk (蒼鶻). [10]
The character of the fool, or uncouth bumpkin, is significantly more prominent in Sichuan opera than in other forms of Chinese opera. [32]: 296 Fool characters appear in guises including Mangpao (the emperor's attendant), the fool in mandarin's clothes, the playboy fool, the dirty and disheveled fool, the old-fashioned fool, and the thief fool.
The costumes are typically specific to a general role and a character type, but they are rarely used to represent a specific character. [7] The clothing can be divided into civil and military where the sleeves indicate if the character is civil or military. [7] [note 2] Colours are also used to indicate the role and character type. [7]
Traditional Chinese theatre, generally in the form of Chinese opera, is musical in nature. Chinese theatre can trace its origin back a few millennia to ancient China, but the Chinese opera started to develop in the 12th century. Western forms like the spoken drama, western-style opera, and ballet did not arrive in China until the 20th century. [1]
In Chinese opera, plays depicting guzhuang is called guzhuangxi (Chinese: 古装戏; pinyin: gǔzhuāngxì; lit. 'ancient costume drama'), also known as guzhuangxinxi (Chinese: 古装新戏; pinyin: gǔzhuāngxīnxì; lit. 'ancient costume in new drama'), or guzhuanggewuju (lit. 'ancient-costume song-dance drama'), were performed by Mei Lanfang.
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Aggressive and frustrated character roles often have an arrow shape fading into the forehead in between the eyebrows (英雄脂; jing 1 hung 4 zi 1). Strong male characters wear "open face" (開面; hoi 1 min 4) makeup. Each character's makeup has its own distinct characteristics, with symbolic patterns and coloration.