66-year-old Artist Draws 150 Hunan Opera Facial Makeup Patterns

Xu Guozhang, 66 years old, is an inheritor of the Xiang Opera facial makeup art, which has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage of Changsha City.

Xu spent three months drawing 150 facial makeup patterns of Xiang Opera in nine categories. More than 100 different facial makeup patterns are on display in his studio.

"I want more people to learn about Hunan's local operas, carrying forward traditional Chinese culture from generation after generation," he said.

Hunan's local opera is an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of the country. Over a long period, a large number of opera masterpieces with high artistic value that have delighted audiences have been produced.

"Hunan has eight major categories of local opera, nine categories of folk opera, and two categories of ethnic opera," Xu explained.

Xu has been engaged in facial makeup drawing for nearly 15 years. His relationship with facial makeup began two decades ago, when he encountered Zhu Jiannan, an inheritor of the facial makeup art in Changsha. He took a strong interest in the culture of facial makeup under Zhu's influence, and started to learn facial makeup drawing skills from him.

"When I find new facial makeup patterns in books, I record them and then draw them on various materials," he said. Over the years, he has drawn more than 10,000 facial makeup patterns on different materials, including eggs, stones, bottles, and paperboard. Moreover, he has integrated facial makeup with Chinese calligraphy to create facial-makeup characters, dragon paintings, and other creative works.

Xu has probed each facial makeup pattern, making thorough analysis and precise identification by comparison and contrast. He especially selected representative pieces of nine local opera categories, including Xiang opera, Qi opera, Chenhe opera, Hengyang Xiang opera, Changde Han opera, Jinhe Opera, Baling opera, Xiangkun opera, and "small" opera (or folk opera). Based on these categories, he drew 150 facial makeup patterns over three months. "The facial makeup of different roles are differentiated from each other. Each facial makeup pattern stands for a unique figure," he noted.

Xu created a "facial makeup wall" hung with his works. "I explain the origins and background stories of these facial makeup patterns to visiting students. The fine cultural traditions should be spread not only by word of mouth, but also by exploring with their own eyes," Xu said.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunantoday