![]() ![]() ![]() Costume Porn - So very much the fancier the costume, the more important (and/or higher ranked) the character.Color-Coded for Your Convenience - Costumes are color coded, and every jing (painted face) role had not only a specific color, but a particular pattern associated with it.The Cast Showoff - Whoever gets cast in the Sun Wukong role gets very exciting acrobatic sequences, and the singing roles will usually have at least one "aria" where he/she gets to show off their pipes.Action Girl - Wudan, the combat female role.It was the foundation of Hong Kong action cinema in general (since training with a troupe builds up lung power and, depending on the role, acrobatic skills), with many of its most famous stars (such as Jackie Chan) having backgrounds in Chinese opera, which went into even more serious decline as movie-going gradually replaced theater-going as the main mode of entertainment. ![]() The first-ever Chinese film, Dingjun Shan in 1905, was an adaptation of a Peking Opera show depicting a battle from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and for a long time afterwards, the narrative and acting codes of Peking Opera would have a noticeable influence on Chinese cinema. Eventually, saner heads prevailed and Peking Opera made a comeback. Traditional Chinese music and art was seen as an impediment to Communist progress, a link to the corrupt past, and so was ruthlessly suppressed. During the Cultural Revolution, they were further branded as holdouts of the past and purged or sent into reeducation camps. Ironically, modern actors of Peking Opera are held in much higher esteem than they ever had been in any period of history, as Peking Opera is being preserved as a living cultural artifact in both mainland China and Taiwan: in the past, any job that wasn't a government post or involved with teaching was looked down upon, and actors in troupes such as those who performed in Peking Operas had even worse reputations, barely above that of prostitutes-after all, they "lie" for a living. As there are many traditions and superstitions handed down from generation to generation, Chinese opera has very formalized storytelling conventions, tunes, and character archetypes. A small handful have also been written in the modern era. The stories told tend towards Historical Fiction, though there are a few Slice of Life tales and other famous Chinese legends as well. Chinese Opera is a traditional art form developed in China, the most famous form of which is the Peking Opera, where an archaic form the Anhui dialect is used for the spoken language.ĭespite its name, it's more of a minstrel show than a Western-style opera: instead of a full orchestra, the actors are backed up by a small band of traditional instruments that also provide the sound effects, the set is very minimally decorated with as few props as they can get away with and action is generally pantomimed. ![]()
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