Beijing Exotics
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine is hosting the Beijing Opera photo exhibition. It is organized with the assistance of the Chinese embassy in Ukraine and scheduled to coincide in time with the Spring festival, which is the New Year, according to the Eastern calendar. The exhibition certainly reflects its New Year’s and, consequently, holiday theme. The actors’ eccentric costumes, fairy and mystic plots bring spectators into a tale where, in spite of the predominance of bad people, the power of good wins, according to the rules of the genre.
The Beijing Opera has long become a calling card of the Chinese culture throughout the world. This is a unique synthetic genre of national and global theater art, including music, singing, reciting, dancing, along with elements of painting, the art of self-defense, and acrobatics. This genre has won global popularity under the name, “Eastern Opera.”
The Beijing Opera’s famous makeup, turning faces into masks, in addition to its esthetic value, symbolizes the character’s age, gender, and temper. Costumes, hats, accessories, and shoes characterize the hero’s inner conditions. Mime is also an important component. There even exist some traditional postures, like liansan when an actor stands still for a minute, to demonstrate his character’s spiritual image.
We are so used to associate Chinese culture with something old, that sometimes we view even new trends in it the same way. However, the Chinese opera is a relatively new genre which appeared in the 1830s. Maybe the feeling that the Chinese opera “has always been there” appears because of the authenticity of its repertoire. Most plots are based on folk tales, myths, legends, and classic literature. Actors do not always play human parts. One of the most popular and successful shows narrates the adventures of the monkey king. However, this is just another metaphor, with which the Chinese opera is literally permeated. Symbolism is everywhere. Red means fidelity and justice, black, steadfastness and straightforwardness, and yellow, anger and wisdom. Symbolism is also found in accessories. A whip in actor’s hands is a horse, the banner, a cart. However, the plots are clear and transparent for us, like it always happens to any work of genius.
The characters in the Chinese opera are divided in four main types: Sheng (male parts), Dan (female ones), Jing (strong, rude, or dangerous characters), and Chou (male comedians). Incidentally, male actors often play female parts, though this is not a reflection of the sexual revolution, just a tradition. For instance, renowned Chinese actor Mei Lanfang for his whole life performed female parts, winning love and recognition from the audience.
In the Chinese theater there are more than fifty hands positions to depict various situations or words. Thus the theater can be called rather a gesture language. However, several self-sufficient “languages” peacefully coexist in the Beijing opera. When gestures replace a song, which, in its turn, replaces an acrobatic dance, the action is perceived as smoothly and integrally as if turning the pages of a thrilling novel.
The exhibition features over fifty photographs. Unfortunately, most Ukrainian spectators have never had a chance to view the shows themselves. But there is a chance that the situation might change. Last year in the course of his visit to China, Ukrainian Minister of Culture Yury Bohutsky signed a treaty entitled, “On Cultural Cooperation” between the two countries. This exhibition is one of the agreement’s first fruits. At the exhibit’s opening ceremony, writer Ivan Drach told the audience that, “everybody speaks about globalization. Please globalize China with its whole great culture and traditions!” Seems that China is ready for it.
