Creating the Soul of Beijing Opera by Hand: Beijing Opera Mask and Hat Making

The making of a master

Talking about the making techniques of opera mask and hat, we have to mention Yang Yudong for without him we couldn’t have seen such exquisite and original opera mask and hat works in his studio today.

Yang came to Beijing with his father when he was quite young. The latter rented the old opera theater of Fengtian Guild Hall at Xidan. Growing up in such an environment, Yang often wandered around Chinese opera theaters when he was a little boy and gradually he fell in love with Chinese opera and began to paint opera masks for himself. Later China was in turmoil and the situation of his family worsened as well. Yang went to study in a school of arts and crafts in his teens for on the one hand he was interested in arts and crafts and on the other hand it saved money for his family. After graduation, he was assigned to work in a popular filigree factory then. But it seemed that he was predestined to devote his life to opera mask and hat making and he was poached by a Beijing opera hat making studio later.

To support his family, Yang began to sell Beijing opera masks he made in the surrounding area of Xidan in late 1970s. To his surprise, the masks were quite popular. The original opera hat and mask works created by Yang became familiar to a number of opera fans through many exhibitions in 1980s. With long-time hard work and practices, Yang gradually grew into an opera mask and hat making master.

History of opera hat and mask

Though Yang is the inheritor of two intangible cultural heritages, the histories of the two are different. Kuitou (opera hat) originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and was mainly worn by dancers, artists and performers then. In times of war, those who could watch their performances were limited to the emperors and officials. As time went by, dynasties rose and fell one after another and the country grew stronger, kuitou gradually spread from palace performances to folk performances and gained different names and its making technique also evolved in the process. The name of kuitou was fixed in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and the consummate craft has been carried forward until today.

Compared with opera hat which was developed to meet the needs of performers, the colored Beijing opera mask was legendary, though it didn’t appear until the end of the Qing Dynasty. The history of Beijing opera mask was related to a household name in China –Empress Dowager Cixi. It is known that Cixi was an avid opera fan and thus theaters, especially Beijing opera theaters, prospered in and out of the palace in Beijing at that time.

Unfortunately, the boom days of opera theaters didn’t last long. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a former bannerman who loved Beijing opera had to make a living by himself as he had lost his lordship. He turned into a craftsman and began to sell colored Beijing opera masks he painted around Dong’an Market and rose to fame for his masks. His masks were not only popular among the masses but also won favor from some manufacturers and they tried to persuade him to join them in producing masks in factories. No one knew whether the bannerman accepted their invitation or not, but this true story has become the most persuasive origin of colored Beijing opera mask making.

Craftsmanship shown in originality

The colored opera hat and mask works made by Yang are worthy of the name originality, for he cleverly combines the techniques of the two. Generally speaking, a colored opera hat and mask work contains such procedures as mask making, hat making, the addition of costumes and accessories, etc. They may sound simple but are actually delicate and demanding.

Opera mask making: First make a mask model with clay. Why clay? Because compared with mud and plaster, clay is stronger and not easy to crack. Then paint the model according to the character of the hero it represents. Yang told us that Beijing opera is an urbanized art and the painting of an opera mask follows some basic principles. For example, red symbolizes loyalty, purple dignity, black righteousness and pink old age.

Opera hat making: It includes around twenty-eight procedures to make an opera hat. First wrap iron wire with Korean paper or bamboo paper. Then stick several (five or eight) layers of paper together to make a paper board and carve different designs out of it. Paste the paper-wrapped iron wire to the designs, color them and add pompons and beads of different colors to them. It’s worth mentioning that in the procedure of coloring, "diancui" (decorating with kingfisher feathers) is the most time-consuming and highly demanding technique, while "dianlan"(decorating with different colors) and "dianchou" (decorating with silk) are also common skills.

Addition of costumes and accessories: Similar to opera masks, different characters and operas require different costumes and accessories. The several Monkey Kings with different emotions and costumes in Yang’s studio well illustrate this point. Among many of his works, Yang especially introduced us the accessory of the opera hat of Guan Yu - green dragon half-moon-shaped knife, which is a miniature of the authentic knife used in opera, and his consummate craftsmanship is awe-inspiring.

At present, though colored Beijing opera mask and hat making techniques are facing many difficulties in taking and teaching apprentices, Yang still insists on bringing them to schools and giving lectures on them to art teachers in the hope of making people know them

and cultivating their interest in them. We hope more amateurs may pay attention to and involve themselves in the making techniques of Beijing opera mask and hat so that the “Soul of Beijing Opera” could be passed on from generation to generation.

(Text / Hao Wenling Photos / Fan Chao, Hai Jin & Quanjing)