Peking Opera face painting is a special make-up method characterized by Han culture. The color of face painting generally has symbolic meaning, red mainly symbolizes (

The Peking Opera face painting is a special make-up method characterized by Han culture. The colors of the faces generally have symbolic meanings, and the red color mainly symbolizes uprightness, loyalty and bloodthirsty, such as Guan Yu.

Black color expresses the image of upright, selfless and straight character, such as Bao Gong.

White color represents sinister, suspicious and deceitful characters, such as Cao Cao.

Purple color represents the character of uprightness, stability and composure, such as Xu Yanzhao.

Yellow represents the character of valor and ferocity, such as Yuwen Chengdu.

Expanded Information

Facial tattoos are very rich and are generally divided into forehead, eyebrows, eye sockets, nose sockets, fork of the mouth, and under the mouth. The pattern of each part is varied, regular and indeterminate, e.g.

Bao Zheng's ebony forehead has a white crescent moon, signifying cleanliness.

Liang has a red gourd on his forehead, indicating that he likes to drink.

Wen Zhong and Yang Jian are painted with three eyes, from a classical legend.

The Giant Spirit, Evil Spirit and Leopard are multi-faceted, highlighting the ghostly features.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Peking Opera Faces