Chinese Opera Coustume

Rule Of the coustume

There is a common saying in the opera circles: “I would rather wear it, not wear it wrong”. This sentence does not allow actors to wear ragged and unsightly costumes, but emphasizes the seriousness of the problem of “wearing the wrong costumes”.Is really to make people laugh.So if you before you buy the costumes You must understand all the details of the role you play.If you simply pay attention to the bright and gorgeous costumes themselves, and distort and destroy the characters, this is an unforgivable mistake on the opera stage.

“Python robes”

Taken from the official dress of the imperial court. Most of the pythons are the general dresses of emperors, generals, concubines and ministers in operas. The patterns of the pythons are mostly on the lower part of the front and back of the robe. The whole body of the male python is embroidered with the dragon and the female python is slightly shorter. Embroidered dragon or phoenix drawings.

Armor

Commonly used by soldiers in ancient times was a battle gown commonly used by generals in operas. Its style is: round neck, encirclement collar, tight cuffs, two pieces of armor standing on the front and back, reaching to the foot, slightly wider in the middle of the front piece, called “belt belly”, embroidered tiger head shape on the armor belly is called “wu armor “Belly”; only embroidered with general patterns, so-called “the pattern of wen armour belly armour is mostly fish scale pattern or T-shaped pattern, to simulate the nail plate on the armour

Pleats

Casual clothes that are widely used in the play, and can be worn by military commanders and ordinary people without scholars. It is a large right gusset, diagonal collar, pleated body length and feet, body width, and sleeves. Women’s pleats are double breasted, small round stand-up collar, and slightly shorter body length. There are two types of patterns on pleats: those with patterns embroidered on the pleats are called “flower pleats”, and those without embroidery are called “plain pleats”.

“Cape”

Mainly casual clothes worn by emperors, concubines, high-ranking officials, and rich people. The style is double-breasted, straight collar, wide sleeves, water sleeves, and left and right open crotch. Men are as long as their feet, while women are slightly shorter. There are many embroidered patterns and there are many embroidered patterns. For example, the emperor uses Tuanlong, the concubine uses Tuanfeng, and other characters use Tuanhua, Tuanshou, branch flowers, cranes, butterflies, deer, etc., depending on their age.

“Kaicloak”

Originally a casual dress worn by generals and officials in Peking opera on non-ceremonial occasions. Cantonese opera was also worn as casual clothes and also used for ceremonial banquets and other occasions as a formal dress. Generally unofficial persons cannot wear it. It has a large slanted front, a large collar, a long cloak and feet, large sleeves, a hem at the bottom of the rib, and a fringe decoration, but the waist does not use a jade belt. The patterns mainly include lions, tigers, leopards, unicorns, cranes, swallows, eagles, but also clusters of flowers and eight treasures. And nowadays Hailong has more fourpole flowers than Haiqing

Official clothes

Official clothes worn by hundreds of civil and military officials when conducting official business. The style is a disc collar, large sleeves, and water sleeves. The shape is similar to that of a python, and the lower body is not embroidered with river cliffs and sea water patterns. There is a ribbed pendulum, a jade belt hung, and a square pattern embroidered on the chest and back to distinguish the ranks of the officials, military officers, and official ranks. This is called “buzi”. The pattern of official clothes is mainly the patch pattern on the chest and back. The current subsidy system is based on the official subsidy system of the Qing Dynasty.

“Cloth”

Whether it is Peking opera or Cantonese opera, the style of “clothing” is the most diverse and the most diverse. Any clothing worn by people who do not fall into the above six categories can be classified into this category. From princesses, royal families, to eunuchs, soldiers, soldiers, court servants, scholars, commoners, monks, Taoists, etc., they can wear this kind of costume. Since the styles and patterns of various “clothes” are different, it is impossible to specifically summarize the patterns or patterns shared by the “clothes” category. “Clothes” roughly include: palace clothing, Chaoyang clothing, fast clothing, arrow clothing (called “riding horse” in Cantonese style), black ghost clothing, gossip clothing, coats, robes, horse jackets, tea clothing, upper and lower hands Costumes, soldier costumes, flags, etc.