Time: Daily Dinner

Baguobuyi offers a face changing show every day at dinner time. The original opera arts is a romantic technique to reveal the innermost feelings of characters in the play.

The face changing, known as “Bian Lian” in Chinese, is an important aspect of Chinese Sichuan opera. Performers use the face changing technique on the stage, and transform it into a special art with stunning skills. They wave their arms and twist their heads, and their painted masks change again and again.

“Face changing” was firstly used for characters like gods and spirits as early as in the Ming Dynasty. “Changing into blue face” was already recorded in Erlang of Guankou Killed the Scaly Dragon, an opera of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the actor entered into the backstage to change the face. Later on, it gradually evolved to the performance that the actor changed his face on the stage, and it became a stunt. Not a few local operas have it, but it is the most famous performance in Sichuan Opera. Face changing art could be divided to “major” and “minor”. In the major “face changing”, the entire face is changed in three, five or even nine types. In minor face changing, only part of the face is changed.

The technique of “face changing” is roughly divided into three types: “smearing”, “blowing” and “pulling”. There is another way of “Qi-manipulation”. When Peng Sihong, a deceased famous actor in Sichuan Opera, played the part of Zhu Geliang in Empty Fort Strategy, he could manipulate “Qi” to change his face from red to white and from white to blue when the servant reported that Si Mayi had withdrawn his army, signaling the emotion of Zhu Geliang after releasing the burden.

Address: Baguobuyi Restaurant, No. 89-3, Dianmen East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing (北京东城区地安门东大街89-3号巴国布衣）

Source: theatrebeijing.com