Chinese Theatre

Forms of

Chinese employ a form of entertainment for which we have no single word. It is a com bination of spoken dialogue, operatic singing and ballet dancing. Both the theatre and the performance present immediate analogies to the Elizabethan drama. The theatre, except for refinement of decoration, is almost identical in arrangement, but the Chinese theatre always has a roof except in the case of temple theatres which consist only of the actual stage itself. Like the Elizabethan theatre, the Chinese use only the scantiest stage properties : an embroidered curtain at the rear with entrances left and right, furniture carried in and out during the performance, landscapes indicated by symbolic plaques. The imperial theatres went further and had contraptions which resemble those described in writings of the Italian Renaissance, including balconies, pits in the floors and holes in the ceilings through which actors could be lowered.

Further analogies with the Elizabethan theatre appear in the long monologues which the actor addresses to an audience in a fully lighted house, and monologues so presented become logical and exciting confidences and not at all the dull and abstract versions which westerners present in Elizabethan revivals. Furthermore, the actors are all of one sex, usually males, and the perfection of female representation teaches the westerner what such representa tion must have been in England. Another analogy is in the comic interludes of exaggerated clowning, as yet happily unexpurgated. But the Chinese have developed a whole set of conventions which are apparently incomprehensible to Western nations. Not only are the gestures and movements of the different sexes and ages represented bound by conventions, but the very voices them selves must conform to similar conventions. The typical classifica tion of parts is as follows. The tan (Fl , Mongol colloquialism for "woman"), or young female, moves in a set, rhythmical sway and speaks and sings in a high falsetto. The clothes for these parts are designed and built in long flowing lines to increase the impression of flower-like grace; the make-up is elaborated red and white. The lao tan (z n , lao, old; tan, see above), or old lady, walks in four-four time with a slight palsied shake ; she bends a little but does not sway, wears no make-up and usually wears a bright orange bandeau to increase the effect of pallor. She speaks and sings in a falsetto. The hsiao slang (zIN, young man) moves in a measured and animated stride. His make-up is slight, confined to pink-and-white cheeks and exaggerated eyebrows. He speaks and sings in falsetto and may, in speaking, change his range from falsetto to a natural tenor. The cut of his costume is simple and sculpturesque, a long loose robe in which he moves easily. The

lao sheng old man) uses movements and gestures the same as the young man's but with less buoyancy. He usually speaks and sings in falsetto but may talk in a sustained tenor. His clothes are of the same cut as the young man's but differ in details of head-dress and are less gay in colour. The hua lien (TEV7 , painted face) represents the warrior. With the exception of very young warriors, who wear neither painted faces nor beards, all actors representing warriors are made up with elaborately painted faces in bright colours and striking designs appropriate to the contours of the human face. These painted faces are the equivalents of masks. The warrior moves in an exaggerated strut and speaks in a deep throaty roar. He sings variously, according to part and actor, ordinarily in a forced bass but occasionally in a piercing tenor. His clothes are built to give the impression of force and strength and include elaborate underpads for the torso and shoulders, heavily embroidered epaulettes and stomachers and long scalloped panniers which flare as he moves. He wears enormous head-dresses, often with 6 ft. pheasant feathers and sometimes four pennants attached to his back. The ch'ou ch'ou, is the second of the 12 zodiac signs but has come to be applied to the comedian or clown, probably because it is homony mous with ch'ou, fit, meaning homely), or .comedian, is allowed more liberty of voice and action, the result being close to our exaggerated clown parts. He is almost always distinguished by white circles around the eyes.

These are the main distinctions. The conventions are carried much further into the special representation of definite characters in which not only the exact make-up for that particular character is prescribed but even the colours used carry symbolic meanings. The costumes themselves are far more subtle and complicated than those of the No drama of Japan, the obvious beauty of which is apparent to the dullest eye. The Chinese costumes, like the Japanese No costumes, are in a style which might well be de scribed as architectonic. The actor is considered a kind of puppet on which the designer builds up a character of whatever sex and of whatever physique he chooses. The outlines of the figures are always clearly defined but the surface of a given mask is often covered with intricate patterns, which makes an ensemble of Chinese actors a more complicated picture than an ensemble of the NO actors. The subject matter of the plays is almost always traditional. It includes stories from famous novels, anecdotes and legends about historic personages, stories of the "Three Kingdoms," in content suggestive of the Morte d'Arthur legend, and satiric burlesques of the church and of historic villains.