The Root of Wang Daozheng's Changing Face

The stunt of "changing face" originated from the traditional drama "Guizhenglou", which shows that the righteous thief Bei Rong robbed the rich and helped the poor, and was chased by officers and men to change his face and get away skillfully. At first, the actor's face was covered with a paper mask. Later, he drew a picture on his face with toilet paper, stuck it on his face in turn, covered it with fireworks or folding fans on the spot, and peeled it off layer by layer. There are generally three faces, so they are called "three incarnations", and some have as many as nine. Kang Zilin (1870- 1930), a famous civil and military student of Sichuan Opera, is good at this drama. It is said that he molded his head with sticky loess and studied the production technology and materials of facial makeup. Every time I bow to practice ostentation and extravagance, I will cut an elastic sandwich paper into three faces of different sizes at home. After drawing them separately, I will clip the wet faces into thread-bound books and bring them to the backcourt for face-to-face performance. No fireworks, no fake props, rapid and clean changes, dumping the audience, known as a must. Every time it goes public, the fare is as high as one yuan and fifty cents. At that time, rice was one yuan a barrel (equivalent to 15 Jin) and pork was twenty cents a Jin. Although the ticket price is expensive, the audience is flocking to it. Changing face is the unique skill of Sichuan opera. Since its birth, it has attracted countless audiences. Now, changing face has become a national quintessence and enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. The magical face change has been passed down from generation to generation. Recently, the science and education channel "People in China" went to Sichuan to shoot one of today's face-changing masters, who is recognized as an iconic figure in the industry. He is Wang Daozheng, a famous Sichuan Opera performer who is known as the "King of Changing Faces".