Unit 6 Chinese Heritage---Reading A Beijing Opera

Teaching Procedures:

Step1: Greeting and Lead-in

Step2:Skimming

Step 3:Scanning

Step 4: Sum up

Step 5: Homework

1. Talk about the origin of Beijing Opera.

2. Talk about the types of role in Beijing Opera.

3. Talk about some symbolism in Beijing Opera.

Today’s topics after fast-reading:

Hope you know more about

Beijing Opera!

Monkey King

White Snake

Women Generals of the Yang Family

There are four types of roles: sheng, dan , jing and chou.

Sheng are the leading male actors who portray scholars, officials, warriors, etc.

Sheng which is subdivided into lao sheng (old man), xiao sheng (young man) and wu sheng (the warrior type).

老生

小生

老生 小生

Dan are female roles ， which is divided into qing yi (the quiet and gentle), hua dan (the vivacious 活泼的or dissolute 放荡的 type), wu dan (women with martial skills), dao ma dan (sword and horse type, women skilled in fighting with weapons) and lao dan (old woman).

青衣

武旦

刀马旦

4 Famous performers:

Mei Lanfang

Shang Xiaoyun

Xun Huisheng

Cheng Yanqiu

Shang Xiaoyun, Mei Lanfang, Xun Huisheng,

Cheng Yanqiu

Jing are the painted-face roles, and they represent warriors, heroes, statesmen and bad men. Some Jing roles are devoted more to singing while others stress acting. The audience is able to distinguish the good from the wicked by studying the make- up and costumes.

The painted faces are symbolic and exaggerated, and are used to represent a character’s personality.

Guess

Sha Wujing Niu MowangSun Wukong Er Langshen

Chou are basically the clowns marked by a small, square-shaped white area on their noses. He is funny and humorous. This role is again subdivided into "civilian clowns" and "warrior clowns".

Let’s talk about some symbolism in Beijing Opera.

1.Color ( especially, facial make-up)

2.Props3.Body movement

Red face: upright （正直的）， loyal （忠诚的） and courageous （英勇的） character

Guan yu

White face: white reveals （显示出） a crafty （诡计多端） and suspicious （疑心） character.

Cao Cao

Black face: black suggests a serious, uprightness （正直） and straightforwardness（坦率）

Bao Gong

Purple face: a symbol of wise, brave and a sense of justice （正义）

Lian Po

Yellow face: yellow means an intelligent character, but a less extroverted （外向的） one.

Dian Wei

Gold face: gold and silver are sometimes used on the faces of immortals （神仙） , demons （恶魔） and monsters （怪物） .

Ru Lai

Fun time:Action show

Symbolism in Beijing Opera

1.Opening a door2.A girl doing

embroidery( 刺绣）3.Rowing a boat , in

good weather and in bad weather

Let’s sum up our lesson together!

Homework

To read the text and find more information about Beijing Opera from Internet.