Dress the Part for Peking Opera

o the unfamiliar foreign ear, the music and singing in Peking Opera are strange and of- ten dismissed as discordant and noisy -what someone once unkindly described as the "unintelligible meeting the incomprehensible".Despite this understandable cultural sound barrier, foreigners are invariably highly impressed by the sheer spectacle of these uniquely Chinese operas ... the richly designed, brilliantly colored robes and other costumes, superb embroidery and even the actors' meticulously painted faces.

Surprisingly, many Chinese as well as foreigners get no particular kick from watching Peking Opera, however famous the story and the skilled performers who act it out. More than a few, however, do enjoy the purely visual aspect of this most ancient of performing arts and, more, being photographed wearing authentic Peking Opera costumes and with their faces made up in accordance with the character's stage persona.

The market for such photographs being evident, young, artistic Chinese couple Tie Bing and wife Zhang Yu recently opened a Beijing studio exclusively dedicated to photographing ordinary people dressed in traditional Peking Opera costumes, and with full make-up and appropriate hair style. Called "Experiencing Peking Opera�, the studio is located at the Kent Center, East of the Lufthansa Center.

Zhang explained the studio was opened partly to fulfill the wish of her husband's father, a lifetime Peking Opera fan who never got the chance to dress, and be photographed, as a Peking Opera character. Originally operating from a tiny room, the couple moved to a spacious former warehouse at the Kent Center last Spring.

Basically, the studio resembles an opera theater. It has a large stage, classical furniture, and balustrades that overlook the whole 800sq.m working area and seven separate mini-studios which have numerous "backgrounds" of Chinese ink and water paintings for customers being photographed. Adjacent dressing rooms are stocked with theatrical greasepaint, while the studio's exterior wall bears six large paintings of famous Peking Opera figures.

Customers can be photographed as a character of their choice, women having a range of 20 to choose from. Prices are from 280 to 2,980 yuan. Children can also be appropriately dressed up and pictured, a nice childhood memory for their adult years.

The studio is attracting more younger people than the elderly, the majority women who are struck by the romance of unusual portraiture rather than out of a particular love of Peking Opera. Tired of Taiwan-style wedding photos and photos that make them look like movie stars, they have turned to the traditional -a phenomenon not unknown in the West in the 1970s and 80s during what was termed the "nostalgia boom".

These "Experiencing Peking Opera� photographs are far removed from the happy-snap opera-dress pictures for which foreigners pay large amounts at tourism haunts. Tie's and Zhang's customers have to endure a time- and labor-consuming procedure of being made up, having their hair perfectly styled, being adorned with often numerous ornaments and pieces of jewelry, and then being fitted with the costume of their choice. If at times it is too big, it does not show on the photographs, thanks to pin-and-tuck expertise. Time is also needed for customers to perfect their pose and gestures, advised by a professional Peking Opera actress.

"It takes two or three hours for the whole procedure," said Zhang. "For customers who need to wear a hard, heavy hat and a tight armor-style costume, it's a kind of torture. But the real opera fans among them like to experience the strict process because it gives them an understanding of actors' hardships."If a customer is in a hurry, the procedure can be completed in about one hour.

Zhang explained that studio computerization enables a customer to play double roles in the same photograph. She explained: "For example, a woman dresses up twice in order to portray, say, a Tang Dynasty emperor and his concubine. The finished photograph shows the emperor holding the arm of his lady, or vice versa."

Other special effects are routine for Zhang and Tie. A customer's photograph can be in the style of a Chinese ink-and-water painting, an oil work, or simply as an "old" black and white photograph like those of 1930s fashionable Shanghai ladies. Photographs can also be in the form of stamps, or as the illustrations in a calendar.

Experiencing Peking Opera
Kent Center, 29 Liangmaqiao Lu, 8456-8630.