How Face Changing Works in Chinese Opera .......... ~~~~~~

Face-changing is a kind of stunt used to portray characters in the art of Sichuan opera. It is a romantic technique to reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters in the play.

Lore has it that "face-changing" is an ancient practice in which human beings, faced with ferocious beasts, sketched their faces in different ways in order to survive and to scare the invading beasts. Sichuan Opera puts "face-changing" on the stage and makes it a unique art with its marvelous skills.

There are three types of face-changing techniques: "face-wiping", "face-blowing" and "face-pulling". In addition, there is also a "luck" face changing.

"Wipe the face" is the makeup oil paint on a specific part of the face, when the hand to the face, you can become another face. If you want to change the whole face, you can apply the paint to the forehead or eyebrows, and if you want to change only the lower part of the face, you can apply the paint to the face or nose. If only one part of the face is to be changed, the oil paint can be applied only to the place where it is to be changed. For example, Xu Xian in "White Snake", Pei Yu in "Release Pei", and Chen Lun in "Flying Cloud Sword" all use the technique of "wiping the face".

"Blow face" is only suitable for powdered cosmetics, such as gold powder, toner, silver powder and so on. There is a very small box on the floor of the stage, filled with powder, the actor to do a dance movement on the ground, take the opportunity to face close to the box to blow, powder on the face, immediately into another color of the face. It is important to note: when blowing, close your eyes, mouth and breath. The "face blowing" method is used to change the faces of characters such as Zidu in "Capturing Zidu Alive" and Le Yangzi in "Ruling Zhongshan".

The "face-pulling" method is a more complicated one. It is to draw the face on a piece of silk beforehand, cut it out, tie a handful of threads on each face, and then stick it on the face one by one. The threads are tied in a convenient and inconspicuous place of the clothes (e.g. on the belt). As the play progresses, it is pulled off one by one under the cover of dance movements. For example, the bowl boy (purple and gold cymbal bowl) in "The Legend of the White Snake" can change into seven or eight different faces, such as green, red, white and black. The thief in "The Old Building" and Nie Long in "Wang Niang Beach" also use the "face pulling" technique. There are certain difficulties in "face-pulling". First, there should not be too much adhesive for the face-painting, so as not to be unable to pull down the face-painting, or to pull down all the face-painting at once. Secondly, the movement should be clean and sharp, and the fake movement should be skillful, so as to hide the audience's eyes.

There is also a way to "change faces by luck". Legend has it that the late Sichuan opera actor Peng Sihong, when playing Zhuge Liang in "The Empty City", was able to use his qigong to turn his face from red to white, and then from white to green when the qigong boy reported that Sima Yi's army had retreated, which was meant to show Zhuge Liang's fear of being relieved of his burden.

In short, face-changing is a great skill in Sichuan Opera, which has been borrowed by other brother operas and has been spread abroad.