Facial Makeup of Beijing Opera

The facial makeup is a special design on the face of Beijing opera actors and actresses. It is characterized by exquisite patterns of bright colors and fine, smooth lines applied by painting with brush and rubbing by hand to achieve artistic exaggeration. The colorful, varied patterns for the painted face roles show the noble and humble, the beautiful and ugly, the good and evil, and the loyal and treacherous. They are in sharp contrast with the plain, neat facial designs of the sheng (the male) and dan (the female) roles, thus producing a strong aesthetic effect, different roles in Beijing opera-sheng, dan, jing (the male with a painted face), and chou (the clown)-have different facial makeups.