Transcript The Characters of Chinese Opera

The Characters of Chinese Opera
Domingo Yang 935203
Ivy Yih
935204
Introduction
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The technical term of Characters in
Chinese Opera; Hang Dang (行當)
Four major types of Hang Dang (行當)
Sheng (生) Hang Dang
Tan (旦) Hang Dang
Ching (淨) Hang Dang
Chou (丑) Hang Dang
Hang Dang (行當)
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Hang Dang is a very special system and
arrangement of Characters in Chinese opera.
According to different personas in the opera,
at first, actors and actresses have to found on
those personas’ genders, characteristics,
status and etc. then emphasize on the
different kinds of make up, costume, and
performances; therefore, people categorize
those different types of personas with the
performers into the system of Hang Dang (行
當).
Four major types of Hang Dang
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Hang Dang (行當) can be divided into
four major types, which are sheng (生),
tan(旦), ching(淨) and chou(丑),
moreover, we used to have another
type of Hang Dang called Mo (末),
however, gradually, the Mo (末)
becomes a part of the sheng (生); as a
result, we only have four types of Hang
Dang today. Theoretically, performers of
either gender could portray any of
these Hang Dang (行當) roles in opera.
Sheng (生) Hang Dang (行當)
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The Sheng is basically a pure
male role, especially in
Peking opera, besides
ching(淨) and chou(丑), the
rest of the male personas
would be all categorized into
the Sheng Hang Dang.
According to the age,
characteristic, appearance
and images, we can basically
divide Sheng into the types
of maturity, youth, and
militant or martial art.
The Sheng of mature, Lao Sheng .
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The Sheng of
mature, Lao Sheng,
often performed as
an aging man or a
middle-age man
with beards.
The Sheng of youth, Hsiao
Sheng .
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Hsiao Sheng is usually a
young scholar or a lover
Hsiao Sheng often has
the kind of handsome
make up without any
beards.
They would use a highpitch voice to sing but a
combination of highpitch and low-pitch
voice for speaking.
The Sheng of martial art and
militant, Wu Sheng .
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Wu Sheng is about
the militant or
martial males are
skilled in the art of
kung fu.
They would use loud
and masculine voice
to sing and speak.
Tan Hang Dang
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Tan is about the pure
female roles, like
Sheng, for most of
the time, Dan is also
the main female role
in the opera.
Tan
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According to their age, characteristic,
and appearance, we would have the
types of Lao Tan (老旦), Ching I (青衣),
Hua Dan (花旦), Hua Shan (花衫), Wu
Tan (武旦), Tao Ma Tan(刀馬旦), and
Tsai Tan(彩旦), and only the Loa Tan
would use low- pitch voice, and the rest
of them would use a high-pitch voice
for singing and speaking.
Lao Tan (老旦)
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Lao Tan is a role of
an aging woman,
and performers
would use the lowpitch voice for
representing the
aging body condition.
Ching I (青衣)
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Ching I is a role of
the kind of faithful
and moral women,
especially a faithful
wife, lover, or
maiden in distress.
Hua Tan (花旦)
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Hua Tan is a role of
a very lively
energetic young
woman, or a young
female flirt.
Sometimes, a Hua
Tan could be in a
low social status,
but with a comic
character.
Hua Shan (花衫)
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Hua Shan is a role
that created by an
opera master Mr.梅
蘭 芳.
Hua Shan is a
combination of
Ching I and Hua Tan.
Wu Tan (武旦)
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Wu Tan is a female
martial or acrobatic
fighter, and most of
them are in a young
age.
Tao Ma Tan (刀馬旦)
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Tao Ma Tan is a
female heroic warrior.
They would wear
the conventional
costume of a female
military officer; plus,
a halberd or a long
weapon in hands
and sometime riding
on a horse.
Tsai Tan (彩旦)
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Tsai Tan is a comic
female role.
They could be
hilarious, ridiculous,
and bad looking at
the same time.
Tsai Tan is also in
parallel with the
clown role of Chou
in the opera.
Ching Hang Dang
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(花臉)
Ching(painted face)
symbolizes anyone
belonging to rough
crowd and can be either
good or evil.
The acting style of
ching will focus on loud
voice and exaggerated
movements.
Ching can be subdivided
into cheng ching, wu
ching and fu ching.
Cheng Ching
正淨(大花臉)
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Cheng ching is a
primarily painted-face
role who emphasizes on
singing and also named
as “唱功花臉.”
Cheng ching usually
plays roles of higher
social status,
sophisticated manner or
justice.
Typical model of Cheng Ching
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銅錘花臉—徐延昭
Fu Ching
副淨
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(二花臉)
Fu (assistant) ching,
emphasizes acting
and posturing on
stage and called”架
子花臉” as well.
Fu ching often plays
the role of brave
and generous
personality or
masculine manner,
like Zhang Fei.
Wu Ching
武淨 (武二花)
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Wu (martial-art) ching,
a fighting and
gymnastic role, who
also called “摔打花
臉”usually plays an
assistant role to the
main martial-arts player.
Wu ching’s acting
mainly focuses on
fighting instead of
singing or speaking.
The significance of the color
on the painted-face
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Various personality
traits are presented by
different colors:
Red stands for an
honest, loyal, righteous,
straightforward, and
trustworthy character.
White stands for
cunning, slyness, and
tricky.
Black for bravery and
justice.
Chou Hang Dang (小花臉)
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The clown roles, chou,
include both male and
female characters who play
roles from different kinds of
social status and also their
language is colloquial and
easily understood.
The clown characters are
easy to distinguish by a
white "triangle" or “square”
painted on the middle of the
face.
They are also free to make
spontaneous remarks, to
satirize other characters, or
merely to bring out laughter.
Wen Chou
文丑
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Wen chou who is
funny and does not
perform much martialart.
Wen chou could be
subdivided into several
types according to the
status, age and
characteristics.
Wen chou mostly
represents the
common people and
can be either good or
evil.
Subdivided types of Wen Chou
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「袍帶丑」refers to someone participates
in official career.
「方巾丑」refers to someone is
knowledgeable.
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「茶衣丑」refers to the common people.
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「老丑」refers to someone is elder.
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「丑婆子」refers to bad-looking female and
also called “彩旦”.
Wu Chou
武丑
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Wu chou,an acrobatic expert
in martial arts, is cleaver and
energetic; furthermore, can
be either good or evil .
Wu chou mostly belongs to
“江湖人物” who could be
the model of justice and help
the weakness or the
negative character in the
gangsters.
Wu chou will use lots of
movements whey they are
speaking for showing their
characteristic as active and
full of vitality; therefore, wu
chou also named “開口
Clips of Master piece:
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群英會
長坂坡
西廂記
武家坡
穆柯寨穆天王
大保國
鍘美案
野豬林
Thank you for your attention, and
now we would like to display
some clips of Characters for you.
2004 10 20