The Glamor of Beijing Opera

Beijing Opera or Peking Opera, also known as jingju in Chinese, is one of most well-known pillars of traditional Chinese culture. This opera genre combines four performance skills: song, speech, dance-acting and combat.

The video below centers mostly on combat, which represents martial arts. Highly skilled performers from the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company artfully demonstrate the dazzling glamor of Beijing Opera!

You may have wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a Beijing Opera performance by the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company. Since its founding in 1955, the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company has grown into a prominent art company and it is now one of ten key national Beijing Opera troupes entitled by China’s Ministry of Culture. This video reveals which steps lead up to the glamor that you see on stage, from makeup and costumes to stage arrangement and sound checks.