Chinese Opera Costumes : Bodily Practice and Social Memory of Chinese Theatrical Costumes

Abstract

Opera costume is an important part of Chinese opera culture and art. It is the precipitation and derivation of Chinese history and culture after thousands of years, the reflection of life desire and artistic creation, and the condensation of hard work and wisdom, forming the unique traditional costume art of China. This is not only the common cultural identity of the Chinese people, but also an important social memory of the Chinese people in the process of modernization.

First of all, it elaborates the evolution history of Chinese Opera and Hui Opera.

There are many kinds of Chinese Operas, and Opera costumes are the general name of Chinese Opera costumes. China, represented by Hui Opera, has more than 360 Operas. Each province, city, district or county has its own unique local operas, and each local opera has its own repertoire. Therefore, the art of Chinese Opera can be called the most in the world, and is known as one of the four treasures of China (opera, traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, cooking)[1].（Ma Qiang, Yu Qiaolan,1995,P2）

Hui Opera is mainly distributed in Anhui and Hubei provinces. The emergence of “Huizhou Tune” began in the Ming Jiajing Period（1522AD-1566AD）and became popular in the Wanli Period（157AD3-1620AD）. Hui Opera was originally a troupe of Huizhou merchants raised in the family. In the fifty-five years of Qianlong（July,1790AD）, Anhui native Cao Wencheng dedicated his hometown drama, Hui Opera, as a gift to the emperor to celebrate the 80th birthday of Emperor Qianlong. The Cao family is the head of the salt merchants in Yangzhou. The Emperor Qianlong made six trips to the south and settled in Yangzhou. Cao Wencheng was in charge of business and won the trust of Emperor Qianlong.

With the continuous development of China's feudal society, the growing prosperity of cities has promoted the prosperity of the commodity economy, and the art of opera has become increasingly perfect. The Hui Opera artists in ancient China were not satisfied with the art form at that time, and constantly pursued and enriched the makeup, props, costumes and other contents of the opera art, presenting the gorgeous and beautiful opera costumes to the audience.

Secondly, it expounds the costumes of Hui opera from the dimensions of social memory and physical practice.

Contemporary people generally believe that Peking Opera is the representative of Chinese Opera. However, many people do not know that Peking Opera is inherited and developed on the basis of Hui Opera, and Peking Opera has affected the development of other Chinese Operas. The costumes of Peking Opera basically continue the characteristics of the costumes of Hui Opera, and are gradually formed in the long-term artistic practice to set off and create a performance atmosphere.

The costume on the stage of Hui Opera is a unique traditional costume art in China. It reflects the beauty of the luxuriance, the beauty of simplicity, the beauty of gravity, the beauty of elegance, dizzying, with touching artistic charm. As an important part of the performing arts of Hui Opera, stage costume is highly unified in content and form. The distinctive artistic features presented by it have been deeply loved by the people for hundreds of years and regarded as the essence of costume with unique style of the Chinese nation[2](Li Taishan, 2018, P235).

Hui Opera costume is an art that beautifies people and characters by means of material means. From the initial sacrificial ceremony, clothing has evolved into two functions: practical and ornamental. In addition to the practical function of clothing in daily life, clothing on the opera stage is more ornamental. Gorgeous and beautiful costumes can bring beauty to the audience, immerse the audience in the role of the plot, resonate and cultivate their sentiment. With the continuous development of society, artists draw on the essence of costumes from different dynasties and constantly improve and perfect them. The costume of Hui Opera is also a special artistic language, which is used to express the characteristics of characters on different occasions, manners, behaviors and experiences, expressed from rap and performance, need to show the identity, status, emotion, experience, country and nationality of the characters on the clothes.

Finally, analyze the continuity and development of Hui Opera costumes in the context of new China.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to solve the social problems of thousands of opera artists' employment and hundreds of millions of people's entertainment, the focus of opera reform was to examine and approve the most popular old plays without a large number of new plays. From the central government to all provinces, cities and counties, there are special organizations for sorting out plays. Editors, drama reform workers and opera artists work together to study and sort out, and improve and retain valuable scripts. And the name of "Hui Opera" was determined.

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