From Opera to Catwalk

The guest Lecture spoken by Pacino Wan and Victor Tong explored the ‘The Fashion Battlefield in China’ and ‘Chinese Opera Mask Art and Chinese Tradition’ individually; the first through a chronologic journey of his success and a Fashion show clip featuring his collection. The other by explaining the significance of colour in the Chinese culture and contextualising it through film and tribal Chinese paintings. The 8^th of May lecture in the Sir James Matthews building featured an explanation as to why warriors in Chinese culture have different colours and designs on their faces. In contrast to the cultural side of China, Victor Tong, talks from a Fashion perspective about his success as a designer and how he created his collection.

Wang began by giving translations of certain words in the Chinese language and how there is correlation between the type of character in the performance and the Make-up that they wear. Every part of the face is painted in a particular way to define the character, for example the eye and eyebrows are shaped and positions to define status; the straight eyebrow and straight eye shape is usually worn by warriors whereas the curved eye and brow is usually seen on monks. So the small change in shape is actually a complete different social status. This completely contrasted with my understanding of the Chinese masks as I wasn’t aware the significance of the facial shapes. The purpose of the different shapes on the opera masks is to define what each character is. Shapes are also used through china for the specific symbols that are also featured on the warrior masks.

The famous ‘Ying Yang’ or ‘Taiji’ symbol signifies infinite potential or ultimate power. It is featured on the mask of character Jiang Wei who is seen as a powerful character. The mask and its shapes and symbols are all significant to his status. Similarly, Seal Script is a selection of symbols that are traditionally used in traditional Chinese decorative paper art.  Part of the symbol is called ‘Bat’ in Chinese which signifies good fortune which is often placed together with Longevity. Symbols like these, especially the ‘Ying Yang’ are used commonly in modern day tattoos and they contrast completely with the use of them in Chinese opera masks as they speak less power than the original meaning behind it.

(Anon, Date Unknown http://lowcadence.com/2013/08/12/utah-yin-yang/)

The most defining part of each Opera mask are the colours as they depict the status and personality of each character. Wang explained through visual stimuli that the colours on the masks are used throughout all opera and that it isn’t just story specific. For example the colour red represents luckiness and righteousness; an overall positive colour. Whereas my perception of red is that it is danger, anger, a colour to be disliked and cautious of. Yellow is a colour of cruelty, green violence and impulsiveness, blue the colour of neutral and bravery and gold the spiritual colour. I realised that the Chinese cultural definitions of colour are completely different to my perception of colour connotation. The colours being used throughout opera make it easier for the audience to automatically distinguish what type character is in front of them.

(Anon, Date Unknown, http://www.china-tour.cn/Chinese-Arts/Beijing-Opera.htm)

Moreover, the colours were transferrable to a modern day situation during a campaign for Puma in which Chinese mask designs and colours were collaborated with the colours of the representatives flags. This was an example of applying the colours the way the Chinese perceive characteristics. The green was largely featured on an athlete’s face which suggests impulsiveness and violence. So attacking the sport and winning could have a correlation.

(Anon, 2008 http://www.sportstrader.co.za/pages/News%20Trader/12/1203.html)

The second part of the lecture was a complete contrast the Chinese opera masks as it delved into the Chinese fashion industry, something I was not very educated on. Pacino Wan talked about how he went straight from education to trying to start his own business. He started small and went big! His clothes were a complete contrast to what is seen in the Western part of the world today. However, his 2004 collection featured a lot of denim which was very popular during the late 90’s early 20’s. One thing I did notice throughout his collection was the use of embroidered flowers and pastel floral shapes. This is something I found I recognised from Chinese culture as I have noticed it before on Chinese umbrellas and general Chinese patterns on clothing. Colour is also another significant part of the fashion world because everything is full of colour to portray the personality of the clothing.

The lecture gave a completely new idea about Chinese Opera masks and how to interpret colour and mask design in a cultural way. I left with an overflow of ideas on how to interpret the colours and shapes into bold lines filled with colour or the theatrical character idea to create my own mask. The information I learnt gave me another platform for inspiration. It also gave me a good contextual reference for future reference.