Chinese opera 京劇

Do you like to put on makeup and wear costumes? If you do, you might like acting in a Chinese opera like the people in this picture.

The color of an actor's makeup and the style of his or her costume shows what each character is like. For example, good characters wear red makeup, brave characters wear black makeup and gods wear silver and gold makeup.

The costumes also tell you about the characters. For example, if a character has flags on his back, it means he is a soldier. Can you see the flags the man in the picture has on his back?

A long time ago, women were not allowed to be on the stage, so all the female characters were played by men. But today, women act in Chinese opera too. (Hsiang-yi Cheng, Staff Writer)

你喜歡化妝打扮嗎？喜歡的話，你可能會喜歡表演京劇喔！就像照片中的人物一樣。

你可以從演員上妝的顏色和戲服的款式看出他是什麼角色，例如，好人畫紅臉；勇士畫黑臉；神臉上的妝則是金色或銀色。

戲服也代表不同的角色，例如，若一個角色的背上有旗子，表示他是一名軍人。你看見照片中的男子背上的旗了嗎？

很久以前，女人不能登台演出，所有的女性角色都是由男生扮演，但是今日女性也可以演出京劇喔！ （翻譯：鄭湘儀）