July 13: The Chinese Opera!

Although everyone was recovering from the exhausting and wondrous experience of the walk on the Great wall we "toughed it out." Once we slept in awhile, we were on our way to attend the Peking Opera. While we were there we were able to see the beginning of the process as well as the final product. Before viewing the show we got a brief tour of some of the most famous costumes and their story in the opera. Then we got to see the actors and actresses put on their "faces" and watch how intense, careful, and focused they are when getting into character. One correct stroke of make-up matters because it helps give a representation of the character. A line of red on the forehead could symbolize that the character is evil. It was really fascinating to see the things being put together and it made for great anticipation for the show. The show was exciting to watch, but upsetting because of lack of comprehension on our part, but with what Chinese we did learn we were able to pick up a few things here and there.