|
Chinese Opera Teacher's Guide and Curriculum
Gestures and Props in Chinese Opera
In Chinese Opera, the male/female roles are highly stylized and stereotyped.
Female footwork, hand gestures and movements are delicate and graceful,
while the males' are direct and purposeful. Actors are trained for both
male and female roles. It is considered an integral part of the opera
for a man to perform a female role and vice versa.
 Chinese
fans are commonly used props. The way a fan is held and used helps distinguish
with the character is male or female, young or old. The male fan is a
folding fan, the female fan is flat.
Young female characters typically shuffle along with tiny steps and hide
behind or coyly smile over their fans. Older women walk more upright and
confidently with their fan, and have a more direct gaze. A male closes
the fan sharply upon making a decision and uses it as a pointer.
Gestures Activity (This activity also relates to Drama
curricula)
You need a supply of fans (available
online) or pictures of fans. Make sure you have both concertina type
(male) and a flat type (female) fans.
- Demonstrate
the highly stylized gestures of male and female characters. Use the
pictures to help you. Show how the female coyly hides behind her fan
and the male uses his to demonstrate his power by folding it and pointing
with it, using it to add strength to a point he is making.
- Have the
students try to demonstrate these character roles by playing Guess my
Role: The students sit in a circle and take turns acting out a role
in the middle of the circle. The others try to guess the whether the
character is male or female.
- To add
connection to the Chinese Opera theme, have the class use Chinese names
for the characters: a female role is a "Tan," a male role
is "Sheng."
- You may
have the first student who guesses correctly take his/her turn in the
middle, or simply give each student a turn, to ensure full participation.
Scholars or scribes are included as characters in many Chinese plays.
These talented men would assist the emperors in the successful running
of their empires. It was traditional for scribes with long flowing sleeves
to inscribe poems onto their fans.
Here are two traditional Chinese Poems:
How happily
they dance and sing in the sky.
Lush are the mountain flowers
And the trees low and high.
Locked in a gold cage, I pine away.
Let me return to the forest
To sing my carefree songs.
***
The moon
goes down.
Crows cry under the frosty sky.
Dimly lit fishing boats beneath maples
Sadly lie.
Beyond the Gusu walls
The Temple of Cold Hill.
Ringing bells reach my boat,
Breaking the midnight still.
Scribe's Poem Activity (This activity relates to Language
curricula)
You need photocopied templates of both a male and female fan, writing
pencils and coloring pencils.
- Read the
two Chinese poems above to the class and lead a class discussion about
them. What do the poems seem to be about? What do the students notice
about the words or images in the poems? How do the students like the
poems? Have the students read the poems aloud either as a group or individually
(perhaps first one, then the other).
- Give each
student a fan template.
- Have the
students write their own poems onto their fans in the way of a scribe,
and then decorate the fans with pictures and patterns.
- Display
their work.
Extension
Activity (This activity relates to Drama curricula)
You need clearly visible copies of the above poems.
- Demonstrate
the concept of assigning hand gestures to words and images. Use simple
examples like a fluttering hand for a bird.
- Arrange
the class into small groups.
- Have each
group make up hand gestures to the poems that are written above.
- Once they've
had a chance to practice their ideas, have them demonstrate the hand
gestures they've invented to the class. For
example: What hand gestures can they invent to describe the action of
the moon going down and crows crying under the frosty sky?
- Suggestion:
It is fun to get the children to demonstrate their ideas with just their
hands showing above a screen.
|
