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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.
The character Shang Xirui is a dan specialist, as pictured above. To accurately depict the traditions of Peking opera on the small screen, production brought in experts of the craft to train the actors. The crew also invited 90-year old Peking Opera performing artist Bi Guyun as a drama consultant.
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.
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 wudan (Chinese: 武旦; pinyin: wǔdàn; lit. 'martial female') is a female role type in Chinese opera and a subtype of the dan. Wudan characters are warrior maidens in combat, and wudan actors (almost always actresses) must be trained in martial arts with theatrical versions of traditional weapons, as well as in acrobatics and gymnastics.
Each role has its own style of make-up: the clown has a large white spot in the middle of his face, for example. A sick character has a thin red line pointing upwards in between his eyebrows. 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).
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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]