 Peking (Beijing) Opera Peking
opera of China is a national treasure with a
history of 200 years. In the 55th year of the
reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing
Dynasty(1790) ,the four big Huiban opera Troupes
entered the capital and combined with Kunqu opera,
Yiyang opera, Hanju opera and Luantan in Beijing's
thearetical circle of the time. Through a period
of more than half a century of combination and
integration of various kinds of opera there
evolved the present Peking opera, the biggest kind
of opera in China, whose richness of repertoire,
great number of artists of performance and of
audiences, and profound influence are incomparable
in China.
 Peking opera is a synthesis
of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime,
acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a
story or depict different characters and their
feelings of gladness, anger, sorrow, happiness,
surprise, fear and sadness. In Peking opera there
are four main types of roles: sheng (male) dan
(young female), jing( painted face,male), and chou
(clown, male or female). The characters may be
loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly, good or
bad, their images being vividly manifested.
The repertoire of Peking opera is
mainly engaged in fairy tales of preceding
dynasties, important historical events, emperors,
ministers and generals, geniuses and great
beauties, from the ancient times to Yao, Shun, Yu,
the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States
Period and the dynasties of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang,
Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing.
 The music of Peking opera is
that of the "plate and cavity style".Its melody
with harmonious rhythms is graceful and pleasing
to the ears. The melody may be classified into two
groups: "Xipi" and "erhong", guiding pattern,
original pattern, slow pattern, quick pattern,
desultary pattern being their chief patterns. The
performance is accompanied by a tune played on
wind instruments, percussion instruments and
stringed instruments, the chief musical
instruments being jinghu (a two-stringed bowed
instrument with a high register), yueqin( a
four-stringed plucked instrument with a
full-moon-shaped sound box), Sanxian( a
three-stringed plucked instrument), suona horn,
flute drum, big-gong, cymbals, small-gong, etc.
The costumes in Peking opera are
graceful, magnificent, elegant and brilliant, most
of which are made in handicraft embroidery. As the
traditional Chinese pattern are adopted, the
costumes are of a high aesthetic value.
The types of facial make-ups in Peking
opera are rich and various, depicting different
characters and remarkable images, therefore they
are highly appreciated. Moreover there are
numerous fixed editions of facial make-up.
Since Mei Lanfang, the grand
master of Peking opera, visited Japan in 1919,
Peking opera has become more and more popular with
people all over the world, and it has made an
excellent contribution to cultural exchange
between China and the West, to friendly
association and to improvement of solidarity.
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