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EveryFaceShape

Theatre and dance makeup, China

Chengdu

Sichuan's capital, home of the opera art of bian lian, face-changing, performed nightly in its teahouses.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is the centre of Sichuan opera, one of China's major regional forms. Its most famous art is bian lian, face-changing, in which performers switch painted masks so fast that the face seems to transform. Teahouses and theatres in the city stage short programmes every evening, mixing face-changing with fire-breathing, puppetry and comic scenes.

How a face changes

Performers wear several thin painted silk masks, each a full face in the style of opera lianpu, and change them with a flick of a fan, a turn of the head or a sweep of the sleeve, often in under a second. Older methods included blowing coloured powder or wiping greasepaint across the face. How it is done is a closely guarded secret, long passed only within families and troupes.

Sichuan opera

Sichuan opera combines five older singing styles and is known for humour, high-pitched singing and the use of the local dialect. Its painted faces follow similar colour codes to Peking opera, with regional differences. Face-changing was once taught only to men; women performers have trained in it since the late twentieth century. Teahouses such as Shufeng Yayun in the Culture Park, and theatres near Kuanzhai Alley, host nightly shows.

Guides of Chengdu

Bian lianFace-changing, the signature of Chengdu's operaSichuan operaRegional opera with painted faces

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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