What art form is nine hundred years old and includes acrobatics, martial arts, and squeaky singing?
If you guessed the Chinese opera, you're right!
If you're wondering what the Chinese opera is like, and why the singers have squeaky voices, keep reading!
If you were to attend the Chinese opera, this is what it would be like.
First you would see an empty stage.
The actors want people in the audience to use their imagination, so they use only a few stage decorations.
The performers also need a lot of room on stage for their acrobatics and martial arts.
Next you might see a mini orchestra.
The orchestra is usually made up of string instruments like guitars, wind instruments like flutes, drums, and wooden clappers.
These are used to make music as well as sound effects, like a horse galloping or a rooster crowing.
Then you will see the actors come on stage.
There are four groups of characters: Sheng, Dan, Jing, and Chou.
Sheng are the men in the opera, such as an uncle or a little boy.
Unlike the actors in the other three groups, they don't paint their faces.
Dan are the women in the play, and they are the ones who sing with the squeaky voices.
Jing are the warriors or demons. And Chou are the clowns.
They wear white makeup on their noses and their job is to keep the audience laughing.
So why do the Dan sing with squeaky voices?
Even though the Dan are women, the actors playing them are almost always men.
When a man pretends to have a woman's voice, it often sounds squeaky.
Nine hundred years ago, the Chinese opera was performed outside, so the actors had to sing loudly.
Their voices weren't supposed to sound pretty, just loud.
It takes a lifetime of studying to be an actor in the Chinese opera.
Historically, children were sold to the opera to begin training when they were young.
Parents knew that the opera would give their children a good life.
Even though the children were young, they would get up early every morning to begin their exercises, and they would practice all day long.
One actor remembers having to do handstands on a chair for hours and practicing five thousand kicks and punches in one day.
The children were forced to work very hard, but it made their bodies some of the strongest in China.
One of the most famous stars of the Chinese opera is Jackie Chan.
When he was six, his parents signed a ten-year contract so he could be trained in the opera.
When Jackie Chan became an adult, the Chinese opera was not very popular anymore.
So, Jackie Chan used what he had learned at the opera to become one of the best martial arts superstars in movie history.
The Chinese opera is a lot more than beautiful costumes, amazing acrobatics, martial arts stunts, and stories.
It is an art form that brings together the best cultural traditions of China.