Beijing Opera Performance Clip

Chinese opera has a history dating some 2,000 years. There are 317 types of opera, of which Peking opera is the most important and well-known. The practitioner of Peking opera is a master athlete -- he must be in top physical shape to accommodate the rigors of this performance art. Most performers begin their training from childhood. A well-known example is Kungfu star Jacky Chan, who started training in Peking opera as a child. Performers wear extensive makeup; their whole faces are painted in bright colors. Colorful masks,inspired from ancient ceremonies and religious symbols, are done by the actors. The color of each character's face is significant as it represents the character's personality and fate. www.GalleriaPangea.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Beijing
• opera
• peking
• mask
• drama
• ancient
• Chinese
• Jingju
• Galleriapangea

[percysong]

China as a great civilization prevailing on this planet for thousands years will never lose its precious culture treasure such as Jingju due to 'western arts'. If you are fan of any genuine art, you will appieciate the great art, Jingju, i.e. Beijing Opera.

[ropolso]

Dear turtaleater,

You may love or loathe this music, but there's no need to be rude. Try broadening your horizons, so that you can respect other cultures. And in the process you might as well improve your spelling skills in English.

Have a nice day.

[FalseProphet501]

Can someone point out the characters i can only recognize cao cao

[ruzickaw]

how boring, just fighting.

[mapscraper]

it may be the origin of western metal songs.

[petrashin1941]

interesting. greetings from serbia!

[ItachiTenshi]

This is the first bit of actual Chinese language I've heard, and I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised. Most people stereotypically say Chinese sounds like "ping pong jang" or whatever, but that doesn't seem to be the case. What a beautiful sounding language!

[indienonie]

This is the first clip of Beijing Opera I've ever seen, now one of my dreams in life is to see a live performance :) Absolutely amazing, the drums sounded like continuous anticipation following the performers' every move. Very exciting! Much respect to this art and its long history.

[silvicurlytop]

@whelljack yes, and you had buggers on your nose, shit on your hands, food in your teeth ... but chinese opera have that wonderfull make up on, their beautiful costumes, great skills as actors and martial art tecniques... singers..they're great!

[jakman182]

what is that sinister sounding gong at the begining called?

[destructicon500]

@MyNameIsEarl1066 There are death metal bands all over the world

[MyNameIsEarl1066]

sounded no worse than some of the death metal the west produces i guess...