Colours and designs show the character's age, occupation and personality. Face make-ups are considered to be a special art and appear in ornamental designs and Chinese paintings as well as in opera performances. In Chinese Opera there are many variations on the face designs - over a thousand have been counted. These painted faces provide what the Chinese call a mirror to the soul which enables the audience to identify each character. The actors are literally wearing their emotions on their faces. They used to wear masks, but nowadays jing and chou characters have their faces painted with brightly coloured make-up. The actors in the Chinese Opera carry props and wear elaborate costumes, make-up and head-dress to take on a character's role. There are four main types of character in Chinese Opera: heroes ( sheng) heroines ( dan) clowns ( chou) and painted faces ( jing).
The story-lines are often from historical epics and traditional romantic stories - heroes battle against powerful demons, good triumphs over evil and the heroine is saved from disaster. High-pitched voices pierce the air, accompanied by crashing cymbals, banging gongs and drums and the sounds of stringed instruments such as fiddles and mandolins.
The music is quite different from European operas and its purpose is to punctuate the action in the drama. Beijing Opera is perhaps the best known of the Chinese Operas. For example, Cantonese Opera comes from Canton province. Each area has its own opera where the music is unique and the songs are sung in the local language.
China is a huge country, divided into provinces with many different peoples and languages. Since then, over 360 varieties of opera have developed across the country. Chinese Opera, a performance of music, dance, martial arts and acrobatics, began over two thousand years ago.
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