Mei's acting system has been called one of the three major acting systems in the world together with Stanislavskiy and Brecht. In 1929, maestro Mei Lanfang visited the United States, leading Peking Opera to shine on the Western stage. Peking Opera, which remains highly popular in China, also has won many fans from across the world, serving as an important means of introducing and spreading traditional Chinese culture. The stories are mainly excerpts from classic literary works or legends linked to historical events, such as famous battles and love stories, and many of them are well known in China. There are more than 1,300 traditional scripts in Peking Opera, with around 200 that are commonly performed. While gold and silver faces stand for deities or ghosts. Specifically, a red face stands for positive, valiant, and loyal characters, black and blue faces for neutral, bold and forthright characters, and a purple face for honest characters but yellow and white faces carry negative meaning, representing sinister, cruel and treacherous characters. Each historical figure or protagonist uses makeup with each color representing a particular character, which is easily identified. The drawing mainly focuses on the five sense organs, especially the eyebrows, the eyes and the nose as well as each character's personality. Every kind of makeup has its own unique application method, but they are all based on one particular color with exaggerated, beatified, deformed or symbolic lines. Photo: ICPeking Opera (II): An icon of traditional Chinese cultureįacial makeup is an art form loved by Peking Opera fans both at home and abroad, and is known as one of the icons of the traditional Chinese culture. Children in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province learn to paint Peking Opera facial masks.

Painted face peking opera