Four main roles
Sheng (生,Male role)
Dan (旦,Female role)
Jing (净,Painted face male role)
Chou (丑,Clown role)
The three roles other than the second role represent male characters
There is an explanation about why the roles take the names aboveIt is said that they were chosen to have opposite meaningsSheng in Chinese may mean "strange" or "rare",but the chief male role is a well known characterDan,which means "morning" or "masculine",is contrary to the feminine nature of the charactersJing means "clean",but in fact the paintings on their faces make the characters look unclean but colorfulAnd Chou in Chinese sometimes represents the animal "ox",which,in some senses,is slow and silent - in contrast,the Chou characters are usually quick and talkative
Beijing opera or Peking opera (simplified Chinese: 京剧; traditional Chinese: 京剧; pinyin: Jīngjù) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th centuryThe form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of ChinaMajor performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the southThe art form is also enjoyed in Taiwan, where it is known as Guoju (国剧; pinyin: Guójù) It has also spread to other countries such as the United States and Japan
