Town Gallery brings Chinese Art to you and your family!

Beijing Opera is on the stage 

There are millions of opera fans in China, especially Beijing Opera funs.  They call themselves " ticket friends".    When you wander in city parks in the summer, you will be able to view some amateur opera "shows" there, seriously performed by retired ticket friends.

China has more than 300 forms of traditional opera. Beijing Opera is the most popular one.  It started in 1790 during Qing Dynasty in Beijing.  Now in China Beijing Opera is accepted as the quintessence of Chinese Culture.  

Beijing Opera is a unique art combining drama, singing, music, dancing and martial arts into one extravagant performance.   The major musical instruments in the Beijing Opera are Jing Hu ( some people call it "Chinese two-string violin"), Suo Na ( a Chinese trumpet), drums and gongs.

       Jing Hu       Suo Na

When Beijing Opera first started, it was shown outdoors . In order to let audience clearly see the characters' faces on the stage, the actors wore colorful masks. But the masks interfered with the actors' ability to perform. Actors solved this dilemma by painting their faces with variety of colors. Today, Beijing Opera's face painting has become a famous art.

Let's take a closer look at the painted face