In Chinese Peking opera, face painting is an interesting part.

Peking Opera has more than two hundred years of history behind its name and is the national opera of China. It is popular among Chinese and people of other nationalities alike for its dramatic presentation of Chinese culture and history.

Traditional face painting plays an important role in Peking Opera. It is used as a means to denote characters. For instance, a red face usually depicts the individual valor, integrity and loyalty; a white face illustrates the figure's wickedness, deceitfulness and cunning; a green face reveals surly obstinacy, rashness and lack of self-control. In addition, the pattern of the facial painting tells a lot about the character.

Our Peking Opera masks cover many important figures in Chinese history and fiction. There is a story behind each character. The beautiful facial painting and exquisite costume of each individual will add a sense of culture to your home. Painstakingly hand painted, these masks open the door of understanding this high art form by enabling you to learn about the character that wears the mask in the opera itself. There are four main roles in Peking Opera: Sheng, Dan, Jing and Chou.

Peking Opera Masks or Beijing Opera Faces or Lian Pu mean the types of facial make-up or face-painting. In Beijing Opera, different types of facial paintings express different significances – Red facial painting for loyalty, black facial make-up for uprightness, yellow face for homicidal and tyrannical, blue and green face-painting for a forthright and testy temper and white “face” for the treacherous and evil men.

The craft of making traditional opera masks is unique to Beijing, China. It can be traced back to the 12th century when the first mask appeared in a Song dynasty opera. A few strokes of the brush and every color turns a piece of plaster into a Peking opera mask.