What are the aesthetic features of China's traditional opera performances?

Wang Guowei, a drama theorist in the Qing Dynasty, has a very accurate summary of the aesthetic characteristics of China's operas: "Performing stories by singing and dancing." Therefore, the aesthetic characteristics of traditional Chinese opera performance art naturally take song and dance as one of its important symbols. The so-called "singing and dancing" refers to singing and dancing, which is one of the main differences between traditional Chinese opera and drama performance art in China. The "song" of China traditional opera performance, namely aria, has unique aesthetic characteristics, such as music system (plate variant, Qupai couplet and polyphony), singing characteristics (professional aria, genre aria, drama aria), singing style, singing charm and vocal methods. Dances in China's opera performances also have unique aesthetic features, such as the sword dance of Yuji in Farewell My Concubine, the water-sleeve dance of Tiannv in Beijing Opera, and the dance of Xu Ce in Running to the City in Beijing Opera. Most of them are singing while dancing, so they are all "pretending".