What are the main characteristics of traditional Chinese opera?

1 、Begins with the departed, ends with the and

Chinese opera is characterized by a multitude of art forms, aggregated together by a standard, in *** with the same nature to reflect their individuality. These forms mainly include: poetry, music and dance. Poetry refers to its literature, music to its musical accompaniment, and dance to its performance. Also included are such aspects as stage art, costumes, and make-up. And these artistic factors in the opera are all for one purpose, i.e., to play the story; all follow one principle, i.e., beauty.

2, the opera, so-called song and dance storytelling

Chinese opera is characterized, in a nutshell, "so-called song and dance storytelling". Opera and drama, both of which are part of the theater, involve actors and actresses playing characters and using dialogue and movement to present a storyline of a certain length. The difference is that opera uses musical dialogues and dance movements to express real life, i.e. the means of song and dance. It is also known as "singing, reading, acting and playing".

3, away from the form and take the meaning, get the idea and forget the form

Chinese opera expression of life, the use of a "take the idea and abandon the form" approach, such as Chinese painting of the landscape, with the vertical and horizontal strokes to reflect the life of all the beautiful things. Therefore, on the stage of opera, there is a red-faced Guan Yu, white-faced Cao Cao; there is a long song when crying, long-sleeved dance; there are no flowers and trees of spring color, no waves of the river.

4. Small stage, big stage

Chinese opera, as a kind of stage art, needs to face the contradiction between the smallness of the stage and the vastness of life. Opera does not use the principle of "the three equalities" to squeeze the life for performance as drama does. Instead, it uses virtual means to create a flexible space-time, and with the help of vivid performances by the actors and the imagination and understanding of the audience, it accomplishes the portrayal of the vast world

Expanded Information:

Origin of Chinese Opera:

The formation of opera can be traced back to the Qin-Han era. However, the process of formation was quite long, and it was not until the time of Song and Yuan that it was able to take shape. The mature opera starts from Yuan miscellaneous opera, and enters the modern era after the continuous development and maturity of Ming and Qing Dynasties, which has flourished for more than 800 years, and now there are more than 360 types of operas. In the long process of development of classical Chinese opera, there have been four basic forms of opera: Song and Yuan southern opera, Yuan dynasty miscellaneous opera, Ming and Qing dynasty legends, Qing dynasty local opera, and recent and modern opera.

The Spirit of Chinese Opera:

Chinese opera is different from the drama of ancient Greece, and also different from the modern drama of Europe and America. Because, Chinese opera was created in the atmosphere of Chinese culture; therefore, the political, historical and aesthetic views of the Chinese people have already labeled Chinese drama strikingly. The creation of miscellaneous operas, southern operas, yabu, and huabu was neither empty talk nor arbitrary. Chinese theater, a creation of Chinese culture pushing forward, belongs to the Chinese people's kozo pursuit of examining the past, dissecting reality, and yearning for the future in the form of art.

Reference:Baidu Encyclopedia-Chinese Theater