photos: masks

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A page containing masks from Chinese Opera, masks on walls, masks in Tibet, etc.

Masks from the Chinese Opera.
The masks originate from daily life experience, describing such changes of expressions as white for fear, red for shyness, dark for suntan, and sallow for illness. Most facial designs attach great importance to the eyes and eyebrows.
Red, yellow, white, black, purple, green and silver are the main colours used for facial designs to represent different characters. For instance, red stands for loyal, courageous and upright people; white for sinister and cunning officials; and golden and silvery colours for gods and ghosts.
The facial designs for the Jing roles are made by painting, powdering and colouring in the basic forms of Zheng Lian (keeping the basic face pattern), San Kuai Wa Lian (three-section face) and Sui Lian (fragmentary face). These types are widely used to represent generals, officials, heroes, gods and ghosts.

		The facial designs are considered an art form. Often, it is the performer who must apply his or her own make- up, at times, during the performance. An actor may play more roles in one performance, thus having to change faces as many times as their character within the opera changes.

Guan YU, a wellknown general of the Shu State at The Three Kingdoms	Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of the Shu State	Sun Quan, the emperor of the Wu State
Zhang Fei, a wellknown generalof the Shu State	Xiahou Dun, a great general of the Wei State	Cao Cao, the Wei martial emperor of Wei State


	UTRECHT
Masks from Sanxingdui museum, about 30 km north-east of Chengdu, China

Tibet	We Wear the Mask. We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-- This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Masks on walls, The Hague, Holland
...
	The Mask A mask of plastic happiness often covers her sadness Her beliefs hidden from most Afraid of, but willing to face the unknown Wondering where her place is in this life She has come close to sharing herself Never completely revealing anything to anyone Feelings of invisible chains corner her When she dreams, reality shatters before her very eyes Accomplishments she strives for just at hands grasp She feels lost sometimes, not yet finding her notch in this world At times the glimmer in her calm eyes slowly disappears But within her heart a silent flame burns her inside and out She roams day by day, playing roles Strength unknowingly resides in her History repeats itself once again The translucent veil she so proudly wears Little by little answers will come, pushing it aside One day there will be no more mask for her to wear One day her beliefs will be known One day she'll know her place in this life One day she will share herself ONE DAY this mask will be NO MORE Wolfgirl
'Masks' in Tibet


...and Nepal

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