While the cultural meaning and symbolism of color in China has been significantly influenced by the principles of Feng Shui, the masks of the Chinese opera use color to offer a more expressive point of view.
Elaborately decorated with color and patterns, masks
While the cultural meaning and symbolism of color in China has been significantly influenced by the principles of Feng Shui, the masks of the Chinese opera use color to offer a more expressive point of view.
Elaborately decorated with color and patterns, masks have been used in Chinese opera for over a thousand years. However, it was during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that the colors began being used consistently to represent certain personality traits and human characteristics.
In Chinese opera color takes the audience on a magical journey where it not only lights up the stage with an array of radiant hues; it also stirs up specific emotions and allows the audience to feel and understand the story being told.
Color is used to quickly connect the audience to each character’s traits. In fact, the audience often feels such an instant and intimate understanding that you might even say that the colors are the characters.
Red in Chinese opera, like in Feng Shui, carries a traditional well-loved radiance. The color red in an opera is understood to symbolize positive traits such as intelligence, heroism, integrity and loyalty.
And when the art or costume director tires of red on stage, he or she can bring in the slightly less utilized color purple. Purple conveys the same positive percepti