The main role categories in Peking Opera are sheng or the male roles, dan or the female roles, jing or the painted-face characters, and chou or the comic characters. The role categories discussed here are also employed by most of the over three hundred regional opera styles, though sometimes with slight variations. Furthermore, the active opera audience generally knows the repertory by heart and can thus concentrate on the actors’ interpretation. A Peking opera fan recognises the characters making their entrée onto the stage even before they open their mouths, as their costuming and make-up already reveal crucial information about them. Actors have generally specialised in only one role type, although exceptions are known. There were also exceptions: for example, the regional opera of the Shaoxing area, the yueju opera, in which all the role types were played by women.Īll the role types in Chinese opera have their own characteristic costuming, vocal technique, body language, and make-up style.

This practice was not changed until the beginning of the 20 th century, when women were allowed to step onto the Peking Opera stage. Later, it was regarded indecent for both sexes to act together and thus, in Peking Opera, all the roles, even the female characters, were performed only by men. Besides them, there were also villains played by the jing or the painted-face actors as well as chou or the comic characters.ĭuring the Yuan Dynasty both men and women performed on the opera stage. There were two leading role types, who also sung: mo or the male characters and dan or the female roles. However, those role types employed by the later Peking Opera originate from the Yuan Dynasty. Some characters from even earlier periods are known, such as the two protagonists of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) adjuntant plays, canjun or the adjutant and canggu or the grey falcon.

These role categories were direct predecessors of the role types of the present Peking Opera. The role categories of Chinese opera started to take their present shape during the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), when the first important dramas were written.

Peking opera mask female