Decorate A Chinese Opera Mask!

The Lunar Festival 2007 (- threads, 33 posts)
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General Thread ₁ Featured February 13 , 2007

The Lunar Festival is coming: let the fun begin!

Decorate A Chinese Opera Mask
Just for fun, while waiting for the Lunar Festival to begin, decorate the mask shape below to wear to the opera on Monday, February 19 and Tuesday, February 20.

MaskShape
The use of face makeup in Chinese opera has a long tradition. Painted faces with simple patterns have been found in tomb murals dating to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the designs became more intricate and the paint preparations more sophisticated, and the colourful patterns we still see in today's opera emerged.
The overall colour of a mask tells the audience a great deal about the disposition of a character. You can use the following list of traditional colours and their meanings as a guide to decorating your mask according to the character you wish to portray, or go wild and introduce a whole new character to Chinese opera.
Click on the masks below to learn more about the colours:

Silver & Gold: sometimes used on the faces of immortals, spirits, demons and monsters

Red: devotion, courage, bravery, uprightness and loyalty

Blue: staunchness, fierceness and astuteness

Purple: uprightness, sophistication and cool-headedness; reddish purple: a just and noble character

Black: either roughness and fierceness, or impartiality and selflessness

White: sinisterness, treacherousness and suspiciousness; an altogether crafy character

Yellow: fierceness, ambition and cool-headedness

Green: impulsiveness, violence, surly stubbornness, impetuosity and a total lack of self-restraint

Petty Face: a mean and secretive character, or wit and humour; the chou (clown) is often painted with a petty face

Beards: Chinese opera has many types of beards - long or short, black, white, grey, or even red! - mostly worn by older men; black denotes over 40 years old, grey over 50, white over 60
For more information on decorating Chinese opera masks, see:

Chinese Opera Mask Colours

Painting Chinese Opera Masks

Drawing Chinese Opera Masks
For examples of traditional opera masks, see:

126 Opera Masks

24 Opera Masks