In shaping the character, Chinese opera has its unique language.It divided roles of different gender, character, age and identity into different profession.In general, there are five major categories: sheng, tan, ching, mo, and chou.Due to the clear image and versatile style of character in Chinese opera, there are strong theatric effect, normally easy to arouse audience’s interest of appreciation.

■ Classification of Roles│. sheng  │ . tan  │ . ching  │ . chou  │
Sheng

Sheng in the Chinese opera normally indicates actor who plays male role in the opera.It can be divided into “lao sheng,”hsiao sheng,”and“wu sheng.” Lao sheng normally emphasized singing and delicate performance in the opera, and the vocal is the richest.
Lao sheng: is the middle to elderly male role, mostly played righteous and tough figure image.
Hsiao sheng: is younger male role.The feature of hsiao sheng is not wearing beard.The look is more handsome and delightful.In the performance, the biggest feature is to combine real and fake voice in singing and reading lyrics.Hsiao sheng is divided into two kinds: wen (literary) and wu (martial).
Wu sheng: means young to middle male warrior role in the opera, by superior martial art to demonstrate the high skill of martial art of the role.Not emphasizing singing, but rather the maturity of martial movement and the degree of difficulty of skills.

lao sheng

hsiao sheng

wu sheng

Tan

Female role is in general called “tan” in Chinese opera.It could be divided in several professions according to age and character.
Cheng tan: ladies and women with status called “cheng tan;” in Chinese opera,it is called “ching I.”Because cheng tan normally wears dark blue long dress.
Hua tan: mostly play as naive, lively or bold harsh ching I woman that emphasizes performance and reading lyrics.
Hua shan: created by the Chinese opera master Lan-Fang Mei that gather the characteristics of ching I and hua tan in performance.It takes the singing ability of ching I and the lovely gesture and movement of hua tan.

cheng tan

hua tan

hua shan

Lao tan: play the elderly woman whose performance feature is using the original voice to sing and read.
Wu tan and tao ma tan: equivalent to the wu sheng of sheng profession, play young and adult woman who is good at martial art.Dressing like wu sheng, and wearing za kao dress.In the play, they normally act as women warriors, women generals, female fairy and elf. Performance of wu tan and tao ma tan normally accompanied with bongo, gong, and bass drum to enhance the atmosphere on the stage.

Ching

In Chinese opera, role of ching is a unique type of character on the stage that with special style.They have the rich colorful facial make-up.Due to plenty colors and patterns of cosmetics used to draw the face, so ti is called “big hua face.”Normally ching plays as man with characteristics on look or character is as general, mystified character, or with certain social status.Although the role could be evil or good, but in the character temperament, it close to rough, strangely great, and bold; therefore, it is required to sing with real voice.And the voice has to be wide, out loud and strong, rough and heavy; gesture and movement have to be rough and immense to portray the personality and impact of the character.

Singing hua face also called “wen ching”, with singing capacity as the performance feature.

Bouncing beating hua face called “wu ching” with martial art of bouncing, beating, pushing and falling as the performance features.

Jia-ze hua face is by figure framework and body movement as the performance emphasis.

Chou

Without ugliness cannot make opera.Chou role is one major profession of the Chinese opera.It is called “Minor hua face.”Somewhat like “big hua face” in terms of make-up, but the performance style is totally different, more like exaggerate comics.The appearance of chou role normally brings laughter to the entire audience.There is “wen chou” and “wu chou” two kinds.
Wu chou: normally play some altered, humorous and with high martial skills characters, such as civil heroes and thieves and righteous robbers.
Wen chou: normally play as playboys, prison superintendents, bar tenders, night awaken servants, and old soldiers.No matter wen chou or wu chou, although there are good or bad, literary or martial, high or low status, in the opera, they are always humorous and funny characters, and not all of them are antagonists.The key points of facial make-up for chou role: first is the likeness, second is the cleanness, and third is good-looking.

Reference:
Editor-in-Chief, Ding-Ding Wang, Getting to Know Chinese Opera, National Taiwan Arts Education Center, 1992. / sorted by the research team
Guoguang Opera Company http://www.kk.gov.tw/
/sorted by the research team
Source of Photos:
Chinese Opera Department, National Taiwan College of Performing Arts
http://digiarc.tcpa.edu.tw/1_1_2_1.html
http://digiarc.tcpa.edu.tw/1_1_2_2.html
http://digiarc.tcpa.edu.tw/1_1_2_3.html
http://digiarc.tcpa.edu.tw/1_1_2_4.html

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