When I was little, I didn’t like watching Chinese Opera at all. I went to the Community Hall(where the opera was performed) with family and my cousins. We kids just went there for fun and free candies or snacks (the person who invited the actors will provide the audiences with candies or snacks) and sneaked to the backstage to watch the actors doing their makeup or appreciating the Kung Fu part of the opera. I also got some view of Western Opera on TV when I was young. I felt the singing actors are like monsters who are making annoying sounds.

After I grow up, I increasingly start appreciating Opera, both Western and Chinese Opera. They are both non-physical cultural treasures of their nations. I was actually very excited when we were going to watch Don Giovanni together. I’ve heard that some people would dress up when they went to a Opera, but I also thought that there must be some people wear jeans and informal shirts. So, I didn’t wear a suit and I didn’t feel comfortable with suit as well. I was a little surprised when I arrived at the theater and saw all people dressing so formally. In contrast, Chinese Opera comes from the folk and it’s for all people. Therefore, We don’t have to dress formally for watching an opera.

Talking about the Don Giovanni we watched, I really like the fancy theater, the stage and the props. The flame part when Don Giovanni was dragged down into the hell was also my favorite. That exhibits how technology contributes to the performance of art and create spectacular effect. Also, the cooperation between the actors and the orchestra is remarkably admirable. They collaborate flawlessly and seamlessly. However, I doubt if the building present on the stage is proper for the aristocrats. It looked, to me, more like peasants’ house. The fight between Don Giovanni and Commendatore was so short and not wonderful at all. If you would like to watch exciting fighting scene, I recommend you Chinese opera.

Compare to Western opera, Chinese opera has fancier makeup(or mask), more actions, and smaller orchestra. The masks are essence of Chinese opera. The masks represent the personality of the characters. There are distinctions between the masks of bad guys, comic guys and good guys. Chinese opera usually involves many actions which make it more animated. It require the actors to have many years of training and techniques. “10 minutes’ performance on the stage requires 10 years’ work behind the stage.”The orchestra for Chinese Opera is relatively small. The orchestra is on the backstage. The instruments include flute, Erhu, drum, gong and so on.

Besides so many differences, Western opera and Chinese opera also have something in common. The singing is not understandable to many audiences, so there are also subtitles for them. Also, both opera are not popular among young people. Less and less teens like opera, which may cause the problem of preservation of the precious traditional culture.

This short video shows more about the actions in Chinese Opera. This is about the tale of Monkey King.

The second video shows more about the singing part in Chinese Opera.

If you are not interested in the previous ones, you must watch the following one.This is called “face-changing”(literally translated), a special skill in Chuang opera ( a regional branch of Chinese opera).