Sichuan Opera and Face Changing

Sichuan opera gathers several older singing styles of the southwest and is performed in a looser, more comic register than the northern tradition, in Sichuanese dialect and often in a teahouse rather than a formal theatre. Programmes are variety shows: a sung excerpt, a comic sketch, hand shadows thrown onto a lit screen, a woman tumbling with a burning oil lamp balanced on her head, fire breathing, and the item everyone comes for. In bianlian, face changing, a performer sweeps a hand past his face and the painted silk mask beneath is gone and replaced, a dozen times in a few minutes. The method stays a guarded trade secret passed within troupes.

What you actually see

• Bianlian - masks changed in a blink, sometimes with the performer walking the aisles.
• The rolling lamp - an acrobat tumbling with a lit oil lamp balanced on her head.
• Hand shadow puppetry - animals thrown onto a lit screen with nothing but fingers.
• The teahouse setting - bamboo chairs, a covered cup of tea and ear cleaners working the rows.

When to go

Shows run most evenings, usually starting between seven and eight and lasting about ninety minutes. Book a day or two ahead in the peak months, and pay for the front rows if you want to see the mask work properly. Arriving early is worth it, since the makeup room is often open to watch before the curtain.

Honest expectations

These are tourist shows and make no secret of it: the running order barely changes, the comic dialogue is in dialect with no translation, and the sung opera is cut to a token piece. The included tea is basic. Front seats cost several times the back rows, and from the back the face changing is simply a blur.

Nearby

Chengdu's old lanes and the panda base north of the city are the usual pairings.