Monkey See, Monkey Do

On Sunday we had a special "field trip" that came to the university for our Chinese culture class. We got to spend 4 hours with an Peking (Bejing) Opera master to learn about one of China's oldest theater traditions. The visit was very interactive with demonstrations and chances for the audience to compete to win the opportunity to get their faces painted.

This was an example performance given by the instructor that was later replicated by some brave students. We learned that he had been training for 16 years since the age of 10 when he joined a boarding school run by the government.

Here is one of his students dressed as the monkey king, a character from a very well known Chinese fable. His performance involved a number of acrobatics and displays of skill with swords, maces, and staves.

Here's me holding one of the prop maces. The monkey king's performance included may elements of acting and circus combined.

Next we moved to a different class room where the two lucky winners had the faces painted. The rest of the class was given the opportunity to paint their own versions of the monkey king face on paper while following the teacher's lead. 

Here is the monkey king face paining.

The second winner was painted as a local magistrate who was famous for being very just in his ruling.

This picture was taken with our Chinese culture instructor, Sa Weiqi, who is quickly becoming our favorite teacher by far.

Here are some pictures of the completed artwork. I choose to be the class photographer instead of doing a painting. This was probably for the best knowing my artistic ability.

We ended the event with some group pictures. The performers were all very humble, but it was clear that they had devoted their lives to training and that they were extremely good at their craft. It is interesting to see how the Chinese government fully supports the children who are selected to enter boarding school for theater of all kinds. This government policy of trying to maintain cultural heritage is also observed in the meticulously preserved cultural sites in every major city in China.