painting a tiger facial mask to celebrate the Spring Festival

“The blue-faced Dourdun steals the imperial horse, the red-faced Guan Gong battles at Changsha, the yellow-faced Deng Wei, the white-faced Cao Cao, and the black-faced Zhang Fei letting out a roar of braveness…” The face painting of conventional Chinese opera is a form of design for actors’ facial make-up. It is usually utilized to two sorts of roles, Jing (roles with painted face) and Chou (comedian roles), through which most of the characters have their very own particular model and face shade, in order to spotlight the traits of the characters. Facial make-up designs options the creative operate of “implying reward and blame, distinguishing good from evil”, in order that the audiences can see the appearances and get a glimpse of their minds. Therefore, the face painting is called the “psychological image” of the character, and can also be acknowledged as considered one of the marks of conventional Chinese tradition.

International college students Makala and Sandos from SAO Tome and Principe visited the studio of the ICH heir Zhao Yongqi to expertise making a conventional opera facial mask earlier than the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022. As a craftsman and a “keeper” of the artwork, Zhao desires to move on this craft and hope that extra individuals will love this treasured intangible cultural heritage.
Face painting has a lengthy historical past and its growth is inseparable from the growth of conventional Chinese opera. Beijing’s colourful Peking opera face painting originated in the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty, and is a distinctive make-up approach in Chinese opera artwork, consisting of two components: the helmet head and the colourful face painting.In 1894, a Manchus surnamed GUI, who lived in the Western a part of Beijing, noticed clay collectible figurines at a temple honest. An thought struck him that he made a clay facial mould, dried it in the solar, and painted it in make-up design of opera characters to make facial masks.Then he gave them to his shut mates as items. Before lengthy, he turned well-known in the capital metropolis. As the craftsman Gui was good at making masks of “roles with painted face”, individuals name him “Master Gui of face painting”.After the first half of the Qing Dynasty, with the prosperity of Peking Opera in Beijing, colourful Peking Opera facial make-up designs had been created and this artwork entered its prime interval throughout the Tongguang interval. The colours of the Peking Opera facial make-up signify the characters’ personalities: crimson represents loyalty and braveness; white represents treachery; black represents straightforwardness; yellow represents fierceness and composure; blue represents power and primness; inexperienced represents tenacity and chivalry; and gold and silver signify gods, Buddhas and ghosts. One can inform type the shade of the make-up sample whether or not the character is loyal, treacherous, good or evil.Under the affected person steering of Mr. Zhao Yongqi, Makala and Sandos made a facial mask for the Year of the Tiger to categorical their hopes and needs for the new yr. Makala mentioned, “I had solely heard of conventional opera facial mask earlier than, however I by no means thought it could be so attention-grabbing.” Sandos additionally mentioned that she would introduce it to her household and mates.SOURCE China.org.cn

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