What's the deal with face-changing in Sichuan opera? What kind of mechanism is used to make it?

Face-changing is a local Sichuan opera Sichuan opera performance masterpiece, produced in the 1930s, was first used in the traditional folding opera "return to the building", the play a chivalrous man named Bei Rong in order to save people's convenience, face-changing a few, and since then this novel way of performing on the continuation of the down. In Sichuan Opera, there are many face-changing performers, but very few of them can be said to be excellent. Audience members who have seen the show know that actors not only need to have the skill to change faces, otherwise they will reveal their cloven foot and make a fool of themselves on the spot; they also need to have profound martial arts skills to make their bodies robust and graceful.　Kang Yong, neither the "king of face-changing" Wang Daozheng, nor known as the "master of face-changing" visit Peng Denghuai, but in 1970 was born in Langzhong City, Sichuan Province, a remote town in the mountains - Kang Yong. -Kang Yong. Now, he is a national-level stuntman and a young performing artist of Sichuan opera. He specializes in face-changing and fire-spitting stunts. Kang Yong not only set the Guinness World Record of changing 15 faces in 20 seconds, but also broadened the field of face-changing, not only changing all kinds of traditional faces, but also face-changing according to the people in real life. At present, while further improving his face-changing skills, he is also studying to change costumes at the same time. Young Kang Yong has performed in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions, and has won the titles of "Ba Shu Geek", "Sichuan Sichuan Pride", "Young Face-Changing King" and so on. He was honored with the title of "The Freak of Ba Shu", "The Pride of Sichuan Shu" and "The Young Face-Changing King".　A hard experience of learning from masters Kang Yong's parents are farmers doing small business, when he was young, there were often troupes performing in the countryside, and Kang Yong's favorite thing at the age of five was to ride on his father's neck and go to the surrounding villages to watch the opera. Kang Yong's young mind was filled with great curiosity about Sichuan opera. The face changer in that play, swish! Turns his head and changes into a red face. Swish! Turns again to a gold face. Swish! And then he turns around and comes out with a black face. And when you hold a cup and want to drink, when the smoke rises, the face changes color, it's really amazing. Out of his love for Sichuan Opera, Kang Yong entered the township amateur Sichuan Opera troupe at the age of 9 and became a young actor. 15 years old, after graduating from junior high school, he self-recommended to enter the Langzhong Sichuan Opera Troupe and became a full-fledged actor. However, he did not have the opportunity to learn face-changing skills there.　When Kang Yong was 12 years old, he learned that there was a teacher in the Langzhong Chuan Opera Troupe who could simply change three faces, which is the most elementary kind of face-changing according to the custom of the current technology. He went to study with the teacher, but the teacher did not agree. The teacher was very respectful of the rules of the trade. On the one hand, because Kang Yong had only been with the troupe for a short time, his skills were not up to scratch, and on the other hand, the teacher was afraid that Kang Yong would not be able to perform better after learning the technique and inherit the way of performing the stunt.　Kang Yong's family's economic conditions are not good, and he has no money, he thought of a way, in addition to respect for the teacher in the life of the teacher, respect for the teacher, he also have to pay, something to show to be able to, from the feelings of the teacher to impress. This teacher likes to drink morning tea, the tea at that time, not now this kind of flower tea, is their own, pick the kind of tea, called brain tea. In winter, early in the morning, Kang Yong would go far away to find a cup of tea, or go to the village home to ask for a cup of tea, give it to the teacher, and then go to practice by himself. At that time, eating fish was very expensive in our area, so Kang Yong found bamboo poles and made a fishing hook with a sewing needle. Kang Yong, who had never fished before, ended up fishing for three days in a row without catching a single fish. One day, an old man said to him, "Little boy, you can't do this, not only can't you catch fish, but you'll freeze yourself if you wear so little. I'll teach you a trick, and you'll surely catch a fish today. After the old man's instruction, Kang Yong caught two fish in less than an hour.　After catching the fish, Kang Yong was so excited that he quickly went to the local villagers to help him make fish soup for free. After making the soup, he sent it to the teacher and told him that he had bought it himself. The teacher was very surprised and touched. One day, the teacher went for a walk, and when he came to the river, he ran into this fishing master. The teacher told him that there was a kid who fished here every day. The teacher asked him what the child looked like. When the old man told him, he thought it might be Kang Yong. It turned out that the fish soup Kang Yong made for me was made from the fish he caught every morning. At that time the teacher was even more touched.　One day the teacher called Kang Yong to his room and said, "I'll show you my special props, the props I've evolved, from beginning to end, and then you can figure it out by yourself". At that time, the old masters of the old-timers, oral transmission of things he did not necessarily directly give you a lot of words, especially the masterpiece. After reading his teacher's props, Kang Yong went back to work on them, but he didn't have a clue. He used the paper to sketch himself, do the face of this face; the family's bed sheets, torn to do the show clothes, for which received a lot of scolding, the results of doing three months did not do it, that is, also did not evolve successfully, once did not succeed. Kang Yong secretly in the teacher dress or performance, to see, from which to comprehend.　A difficult attempt at innovation Interest is the best teacher. Although the face-changing knowledge learned from the master is limited, Kang Yong, a stubborn mountain boy, relied on his own continuous experimentation, and finally mastered the secrets of face-changing after experiencing failures again and again. Unlike the old generation of face-changing artists, Kang Yong hopes to add modern elements to the traditional face-changing to suit the modern people's appreciation of fun. Changing the face of a star and changing the costume are his original masterpieces.　When it comes to masterpieces, Kang Yong also has a certain talent. He likes all the techniques in the theater, including Peking Opera and other sister operas. In Sichuan Opera, there are a lot of tricks like face-changing, spitting fire, which is also a masterpiece, and some small tricks, like blowing out a candle, and then blowing it out, and then burning it, and then extinguishing it, and then lighting it again, which Kang Yong is very happy to try.　From the face-changing to now may be almost 20 years, when the traditional face-changing has been in the country and even the world has been a sensation, shocked the time, Kang Yong worship Li Boqing as a teacher, the teacher proposed to him to change the face of this celebrity, the star, hoping that Kang Yong in the original basis for new creations, new improvements. Talking about his first modern stars, celebrities face changing skills, Kang Yong particularly excited: "Many viewers have long felt 'aesthetic fatigue' on the Sichuan Opera face changing, quite a few words, criticizing the Sichuan Opera face changing no progress, change to change so many old faces! I have been anxious!"　So, Kang Yong rented a house in Chengdu, closed the door, dedicated to the study of Sichuan opera face-changing, Sichuan opera face-changing techniques for in-depth analysis. He wanted to combine the art of Sichuan opera face-changing with the popular stars favored by modern audiences, such as the artistic images of Gong Li, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, and Cecilia Cheung, into Sichuan opera face-changing, to bring out the contemporary and watchable nature. Kang Yong has become a star chaser, hiding at home to watch TV, watch videos, on the star's looks, clothes and even look and act as if they know; Kang Yong store, a shopping is a day, more than the love of beautiful girls like, a piece of fabric, a piece of clothing will be picked up to look at half a day. Kang Yong bought a star pictorial, and bought the production of new materials for the face, and constantly painting, making ah, now a lot of girls will not do needlework, but Kang Yong, a small handsome but can thread the needle, dexterity and ease of production of the star face.　Where should the face-changing stunt go? Since its birth, the face-changing stunt has been loved by the world for its colorful faces and mysterious techniques. However, for decades, this stunt has not been mastered by outsiders, which is attributed to the generations of Sichuan Opera practitioners who have kept the secrets of face-changing secret "tight-lipped". For many years, they have been strictly abiding by the ancient motto of "Passing the word inside but not outside, passing the word to men but not to women". The Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture has also stipulated it as a "two-pole performance secret". In recent years, the Sichuan Opera industry has been rumored that the face-changing stunt has been cracked, some people have taught their female disciples the face-changing stunt, and the face-changing stunt has been used in a variety of commercial occasions and other news. The protection of face-changing stunts has become the center of debate in Sichuan opera circles. Not long ago, someone applied for a patent on face-changing, but was unsuccessful. Kang Yong said that face-changing is not his invention, nor is it the invention of Mr. Peng Denghuai, nor is it the invention of other teachers, it is passed from generation to generation through the old-timers to today, from ancient times to the present day, through so many artists, so many seniors, it is the teacher who taught him, he will certainly keep this secret. Now it seems that the sense of crisis has come, if the secret in the near future will not break, they will certainly have very great pressure, if the streets of Sichuan, not our circle of people, the old, young and young people know the secrets of face-changing is going on, he still believes that through their own face-changing child's efforts to show the audience must still be a masterpiece.　Some people say that the mystery of Sichuan opera face-changing dumped countless viewers, so this layer of windowpaper can not say anything to break. Others say, this flavor of secrecy, the old ways, will affect the development of Sichuan opera face changing, we do not know that one more right, but we know that many viewers have seen a time, or not to see this face changing to understand, but also want to see, we also know that as a young generation of face-changing artists, is a red-hot to the market.