Opera masks mean the types of facial make-up or face-painting. They are a special method of makeup in Chinese traditional operas. Since every historical character or characters of a certain type are provided with a particular facial type, similar to music scores for singing and playing music, such a method of makeup is named "Types of facial makeup".

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. 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.