Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1997 - 24

dab ;Ul imagin:uy te;]r [rom her ele. On the other
hand. II'hen her husband is sentenced to death.
he tosses his hat off of his head. relealing a
long pon~1ail Ilhich he !\Iirls around his head
to ShOll his distress. The costume can sometimes tell the audience the importance of the
character. Abila dall. or coquette. wears the
same t\lle of garments Ilhether she is plal'ing a
minor role of the best friend and confidant. or
the central character such as a matchmaker in
Tbe Red .IJaid. HOII·eler. in the principal role.
she might Ilear a better qualit\' lersion of the
costume Ilith more elaborate embroidel\',
As Ilith the elements of design. the infol'
mation that )ingjll costumes contain about
phlsical characteristics, given circumstances
and dramatic comext is not equalll balanced,
}ingjll costumes place a greater emphasis on
the phlsical life of the character. and their immediate surroundings. whereas the clues for
dramatic context are more subtle. The anallsis
of each of t11ese components rerealed anotller
laler of me:Uling to Ule cosllunes and brought me
closer to the cliscolery of the mlSller to Teacher
Zhao's oliginal challenge. "\\11at are ule t\IO most
impol1mlt chm'acteristics ofjingjll cosllunes?"

The Costume Precepts
Rather th;Ul a design context or a relelation of
character traits. Teacher Zhao lIas seeking an
answer that could not be found by using EuroAmerican anahsis. As he implied, he lIas looking for characteristics that are distinct to the
traditionaljingjll style. The key to recognizing
the unique nature of the costumes Iyas to retl1l'l1 to the patterns of the jingjll design language. and the precept of conventionalized
dress. According to Teacher Zhao. the most
significant characteristic of dress in opera is
that the costumes are selected for the
roles, not for the dynasty and second is that
the costumes do not express the seasons
or the regions. (Zhao, April 16) Because the
country of China has a long histol\' and seleral
thousand operas that corer the length and
breadth of that historl, jingjll costumes could
be a lery complicated issue. Instead. the costumes that have eyolled for traditional )ingjll
focus on the distinctions among the roles and
accomodate the last region and time line in a
single overarching conlemionalized stYle. As
discussed abore. the elements of line. form,
color and texture hale eyolred to express the
role and the information about the character
communicated by the costumes focuses on
phlsical characteristics and gilen circumstances. But none of these aspects communi22

1D&1

cate the time period, the geographic location
or the Iyeather. ]n other words. a significmll
component of the most notable features of opera dress include Iyhat is not revealed, a qualit\· that is reDectile of the Chinese attributes of
indirect expression and innuendo.
The jingjll costlune first identifies the
role of the performer, rather than the
time period. The characters in all operas are
dil'ided into four major role t\lles: sbeng. or
male roles. dan, or female roles, jing. or
painted face roles. mld cboll. or clown roles.
The role ~lles mld the sub~lles within each
role category are defined bv age, gender, and
level of digni~'. The subtylles also indicate performance requirements such as vocal rmlge
mld movement patterns, for each major role
division contains sub~lle characters who focus on singing and others who specialize in
martial skills. Within the sub~'lles, there is also
room for a range of character personalities.
The sbeng character sub~lles include dignified males of various ages, often scholars and
court officials, or noble warriors. The dan
sub~'Pes rmlge from demure young ladies, coquettes, ;lI1d women \yarriors to clignified
older Iyomen. The jing roles are for men of
strength with powerful voices or substantial
martial skills. The cboll sub~lles include characters of lesser digni~' such as unworthy officials and nagging women. (Wichmmlll, 7-] 1)
Within the conventionalized nature of jingjll,
just as each role's subsets have recognizable

different compmlies' productions of the smne
play.
For example, most sbeng or men's roles
usuallY wear the xllezi, pi, or mang. kinds of
robes. (Fig. 20) The xiao sbeng or young man
will \year a specific rmlge of these pieces that
fall within the conyentions of the st\'le of the
young man's role. (Fig. 19) Their garments
Ilill all share the characteristics of pastel color
and Doral or court ornamentation. Therefore.
a xiao sbeng will look essentially the smne in
eyery traditional jingjll. The robe that they
Ilear Ilill fall from the shoulders, mld IliIl
close in the center [ront or lap over to the right
side. Their make up is pllie with a dusting of
light pink around the eyes mld bet\veen their
brows. As they are young, they have no beards.
Their hair would be concealed by a headdress
and thev would wear elevated shoes. To explain the next level of idemification, the similarities of the same character in different
productions, we Cml return to the example of
Lu Bu. In a version of General LII BII and
BeallZ)' Diaa Cben produced in Beijing last
spring by the Beijing i\ational Opera Company,
or Zbong GIIO ]ing]1I Yllan, Lu Bu appeared
in a pink mang or court robe. (Fig. 6) Further
research revellis that Lu Bu consistently is portrayed in pink. In Lu Qing's Peking Opera
Stardom, Celebrating 200 Years of Peking
Opera, he is depicted in the smne opera in a
similar pink lIlang. (Lu, 94) Lu Bu also appears in other plays, each time in pink, lli-

Role Type:

sheng (male)

Sub role Type:

xiaa sheng (young man) wears pastel colored robes with floral or court embroidery

Named Character:

Lu Bu

wears xue , pi or mang types of robes

wears pink robes with floral or court embroidery

Table 3 Wardrobe choices take into account first the type of role, then several subtypes
within each role, and finally specific personality characteristics of a named character.

identities, each also has a distinctive visual image, from choice of the headdress mld
makeup. through their dress, to their shoes.
Each role tYlle is assigned a wardrobe of
clothes. The range of the wardrobe becomes
more refined \Iith each progression of character delineation. (Table 3) The subt\lle Ilhich
describes age, position or disposition, hlrther
defines the choice of clothes. Then, Ule specific
personality chmClctelisitics mld given circumst;Ulces of a nmlled chmClcter Iliuun a role subtylle m'e Ule final components for determining
what Ulel Ilill Ilem' in a pm1icu);u' pelfonmUlce.
Therefore, members of a role subtype Ilill II'em'
ule Sm11e general st\'le of COStlll1le, mld a nm1led
chalCicter Il'iUlin the role subtylle u'aclitionally
could wear virtually identical garments in

though his garment changes depending on the
circumstances. In a performance of Yllan Men
BoU' (Sbooting an Arrou' at Yllan Gate), lliso
presented by the Beijing i\ational Opera Compmly, he wore the same pink 1Il{/l/g and later
changed to a ji{/}Z)li, or arrow garment for
young heroes. retaining the pink color.
Although this conventionalization of costume garments is unusual in Euro-Americml
costume history. it is fairly common in traditiomu forms of theatre in Asia. Audience members would observe similarities to this pattern
in Kabuki theatre of Japan and dance dramas
of Bali. for example. [n Euro-American theatre, the concept of standardized costumes for
roles might be better understood by tllrning to
the Com media del' Arte. Developed in Italy in

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1997