Object from another culture: Chinese Opera Headdress

Chinese Opera Headdress (Pinterest, 2014)

There are more than 300 different regional styles of Chinese Opera (Li G, 2001) and each style has it’s own sets of headdress, makeup and costumes. (Bonds A B, 2014) There are four main categories that an Opera actor can play… Sheng (male), Dan (female), Jing (painted face), and Chou (clown). Most of the costumes of Chinese Opera are based on styles of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The actor’s movements and gestures from the central part of the dance and the headdress are the most beautiful part of the costumes. The colours of the costumes and makeup hold great importance and are symbolic to the Opera. Red symbolises: Loyalty, sacredness or divine qualities. Purple represents red but to a lower degree. Black signifies a good but uncouth character. Blue depicts haughtiness, craftiness and a tiger like fierceness. Yellow indicates the same qualities as blue but to a lesser extent. Green highlights instability and unreliability of a character, where as, orange and pale grey correspond to infirmity and old age (Ayer J, 1974).

I chose the Chinese Opera Headdress due to its vibrant colours and intricacy of the crafting. They are work of art and the history behind it is just as fascinating. The headdress originates from the term “Toukui” comprising of a crown, helmet, hat or a scarf(Ayer J, 1974). The headdress signifies status: The crown depicts nobility, often rigid in appearance, where as the helmet represents the military and scarfs were worn by ordinary people. The main purpose of a Chinese Opera Headdress is to help the audience identify specific roles. The more intricate and striking the headdress the more superior the character.

The Chinese Opera Headdress is suitable for my blog because of its relevance to my current sample collections for the mixed media module. Skills including embroidery, beading, designing and working with a specific colour palette are well represented in the Chinese Opera Headdress. The strengths of my chosen object are it’s symbolism, historic values, influences of art and design in general and contributions to the design of modern headwear. However, the weakness are the impracticality of the headdresses because they are constricting and heavy for modern usage, that there are expensive and inaccessible and the limited information available online or in the library regarding the methods of how the headdresses are made.

In conclusion, I have extended my knowledge on Chinese history in particular the Ming dynasty dresses and their historic values through producing this blog. I look forward to using this knowledge for my future designs.