Chinese Opera

Unlike costumes in Western operas, those in Chinese Opera are highly symbolic, hinting at the personality, social status and even the destiny of the operatic characters, characterised by their colours; both bold and subtle; their shimmering hairpieces and those...

Unique to Chinese opera is its 500-year-old colour cryptography; eye-catching make-up, also called the pattern, that is a feature of the art form with a history dating back to the sacrifices of ancient times. The development of make up in...

The outsider might think of Chinese Opera as a Chinese version of Opera; just singing and dancing to the music with the lyrics in Chinese. That may be so for Chinese Opera’s common features, but therein is a world...