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Day 4: Kabuki Theater and Beijing Opera

Today we started the school day by walking to the Asia Society Texas Center to learn more about traditional Beijing opera, a category of Japanese opera called Kabuki. We started our tour at the Asia Society Center by listening to a presentation on the similarities and differences in between Kabuki and Beijing opera. Here's a Venn diagram that about sums the presentation up.
After the presentation, we toured the Kabuki-based exhibit that featured many amazing 1900s based Japanese print work that all focused in the souvenir department of Kabuki Theater. The artistic style of Kabuki was evident in all the works of art. Many of the display cases showed aspects of Kabuki Theater combined with pop-culture, such as a artistic rendition of a New Orleans' Saints mural spray-painted on a 5 feet by 9 feet canvas. The center piece of this canvas was a large samurai-like character, and he stared at the viewer, creating a strong air of intimidation. In addition to this painting, there were also Pokemon and Pixar toys that were produced to look like characters in Kabuki Theater.

Following the tour, we returned back to the original room where the presentation was held and did a Kabuki mask coloring activity. Dramatic face paint is used as an indicator of a character's personality traits and role in the story. This tactic is used in both Kabuki Theater and Beijing Opera, and my class had the pleasure of drawing our own masks on paper. With color examples such as purple to represent royalty, black to represent honesty and loyalty, white to represent sinister intent, yellow to represent shame and/or cowardly traits, and more.

When we were done drawing our masks, we continued downstairs and were given a quick tour of the art on the first floor. We then bid adieu and started to walk back to the high school. As soon as we returned, we had a quick reflection on the exhibit, and right after we jumped into day 4's movie, Farewell My Concubine. Here is a quick synopsis of the film that excludes spoilers. "In 1924, young Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) begins training at the Beijing Opera House at the same time as Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang). Cheng specializes in playing female parts, often against Duan's commanding male leads. While pretending to be in love with Duan onstage, Cheng begins to develop actual romantic feelings for his co-star, which are not reciprocated. Over the next 50 years, the two men maintain a complicated friendship as China undergoes turbulent changes." Produced in 1993, Farewell my Concubine is intended has a drama/history, with overall themes of romance and betrayal. With the many, many powerful and striking scenes in this movie, our class' interest did not waiver for the full three hours of film. If you have any interest in Chinese history or foreign films, I HIGHLY recommend Farewell My Concubine. If you don't like watching movies, don't fear! Farewell My Concubine is based on the book by Lillian Lee, which was published in 1985. There are many English translations available, and while it is gruesome, it's a wonderful yet heartbreaking read. 

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