Traditional Chinese Culture: Facial Makeup
Ethan Carter
There is a quintessence of Chinese culture called facial makeup. Facial makeup evolved from masks at an early time. In ancient China, a mask was used to intimidate the enemy, while it was also used to perform on stage afterward. The mask performance appeared in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Then the facial makeup took the place of the mask for opera actors’ convenience. This was how the facial makeup evolved.
Different colors of facial makeup represent different traits of characters. There are four varieties of characters in Chinese opera: sheng (male role), dan (female role), jing (painted face), chou (clown). In general, the role of jing usually has painted facial makeup.
The Main Colors of Facial Makeup
In that way, what does the facial makeup represent in different colors? The colors of different facial makeup represent different traits of characters. The main colors of facial makeup can be divided into nine colors: red face, blackface, white face, blue face, green face, golden face, silver face, purple face, and yellow face.
Red Face:
The red face’s traits of characters are a person who is physically fit and knows all the answers. These kinds of people are dedicated and decent. It is the opposite of blackface in Chinese opera and the opposite of a white face in daily life. People usually use these words to represent a good person in daily life. The classic character of the red face is Guan Yu.
Black Face:
Blackface is a metaphor for the tenacious traits of people's characters. This kind of person is honest, loyal, brave, impartial, and incorruptible. Or someone is rude and reckless. The classic characters of blackface are Bao Zheng, Zhang Fei, and so on.
White Face:
Whiteface has two types of people, the person is treacherous and the person is a hale and hearty old hero. The classic character of the white face is Cao Cao. While the white face represents a bad person in daily life.
Blue Face:
The blue face is the symbol of strength, sincerity, and the spirit of rebellion. Dou Ambassador is the representative personage of a blue face.
Green Face:
The green face represents the traits of characters who are valorous, despotic, violent, and irritable. The representative personage of green faces is mostly greenwood heroes, just like Cheng Yaojin.
Golden Face:
The golden face is the simple one; it represents the supernatural beings. It expresses the power and royalty in Chinese opera, like Tathagata.
Silver Face:
Silver Face and Golden Face work in concert with each other. The silver face represents evil and monsters that have supernatural power.
Purple Face:
The character of the purple face is resolute and steadfast; the trait is genuinely cool.
Yellow Face:
The traits of yellowface are brave, battle-wise, atrocity, doughty, justice, and scheming.
Every color has its own characteristic, and it can express each actor’s trait so that the audience can be fully aware of the plot.
Our GS-JJ company has a product called Facial Makeup Custom Embroidered Patches No Minimum. This product is the white face in Chinese opera facial makeup. I
Facial makeup is one of the transformational arts in makeup art. The transformation of facial makeup is for expressing the content of Chinese opera more visually, accurately, and directly. Every sculpt and color of facial makeup does not exist in daily life, but it is rooted in life. It is an art that can manifest and exceed life; it can express the good wishes deep inside people’s hearts. The image of facial makeup enjoys popular support in the folk. This culture has a history of four thousand years in China; it has sedimented cultural genes and cultural phenomena from every historical period.