A: Hello and welcome to Listeners' Garden here on CRI. I'm your host, LPC.

B: And I'm AE.

A: In today's review of China's reform and opening up policy over the past 30 years, we'll take a look at the country's transition from a highly concentrated, planned economy to a robust, market-oriented economy.

B: Then we'll bring you the sixth part of CRI's knowledge contest on Sichuan province.

A: But before that, as usual, we'll open our letterbox to see what our listeners have to say. Please stay tuned.

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A: Welcome back to Listeners' Garden. I'm LPC.

B: And I'm AE. In today's review of China's 30-year reform and opening up drive, we'll check out how the country has successfully transformed from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy. The Socialist Market Economy

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B: You are listening to Listeners' Garden here on CRI. Now it's time for our knowledge contest on southwestern China's Sichuan province.

A: Today, in the sixth part of the quiz, we'll delight in the mystery of Sichuan Opera, the most popular local opera in the province.

B: Here are the two questions for today's report:
Question No. 1: What's the most famous performing technique in Sichuan Opera?
And question No. 2: 12. Is Sichuan Opera performed daily in Chengdu?

A: Now let's follow our tour guide Yun Feng to learn all about it.

The Mystery of Sichuan Opera

China boasts more than 300 local operas. Sichuan Opera is one of the oldest and best known, and is particularly popular in southwestern China's Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Sichuan Opera has a history of more than three hundred years. It came into being by combining the melodies and performing techniques of some other local opera forms with the language and traditional folk arts of Sichuan. Over time, this evolved into a unique and refined operatic genre characterized by beautiful singing, elegant acting, humorous dialogues and a lively performing style.

Sichuan Opera has a wide repertoire, with the total number of plays exceeding 1,000.
Most of them are adapted from Chinese historical stories, legends and folk tales. In 2006, Sichuan Opera was among the first group of cultural treasures to be listed as a national intangible cultural heritage under state-level protection.

Lan Jiafu is a famous Sichuan Opera actor who has performed on stage for three decades. He tells us that although the stage setting, props and costumes of Sichuan Opera look similar to those in many other local operas, the theatrical form has distinctive regional characteristics in its cultural and artistic expression.

''Sichuan Opera is one of the most popular local operas in the country. It attracts audiences nationwide with its unique local flavour. The transcript of Sichuan Opera is usually very beautiful, while the performance is always filled with humour and wit. From this art form people can catch a glimpse of the optimistic, open-minded, humorous and unrestrained characters of the Sichuan people. Another feature which distinguishes Sichuan Opera from others is that its performances often feature fascinating magic tricks, consummate acrobatic skills and amazing stunts such as face-changing, fire spitting and lamp-rolling."

The most famous performing technique in Sichuan Opera is face changing. This stunt is already established as a trademark of the opera.

In most local Chinese operas, the performers' facial makeup is painted, but in Sichuan Opera, the players usually wear colourful facial masks. This way they can use the face changing skills to show the characters’ changing feelings and achieve a better dramatic effect.

Accompanied by the quick percussive music of drums and gongs, the performers can change their facial masks in succession very fast, almost simultaneously with just a wave of their hand or a toss of their head, allowing the audience to enjoy the excitement of seeing snap changes in a split second.

Face changing has become the signature technique and one of the biggest attractions of Sichuan Opera. Wherever it's performed, the actors' superb skills always win warm applause and high acclaim.

Almost every member of the audience is eager to know how the performer can change his face in a twinkling of the eye. But face changing master Chen Jiaxin says the skill remains a great secret within Sichuan operatic circles.

"Face changing is what gives Sichuan Opera its unique feature and national fame. The most skilled performer can change a dozen masks within just a few seconds. The special technique was created and perfected by Sichuan Opera artists over the ages. It's long been kept a top secret and should never be revealed to outsiders."

I understand the importance of protecting the secret, but my curiosity still intrigued me to explore more about the extraordinary technique. So I talked with Mao Jianhua, a folklore expert from Sichuan University.

The expert tells me that originally, the performers changed their facial appearances on stage by smearing their faces with the greasepaint hidden in their faces or palms, or blowing a small box of coloured powder onto their faces. The powder would immediately stick to their oiled skin.

Since the early 20th century, performers began to use masks made from oiled paper, gauze or elastic materials. During the performance, they wore layers of masks and pulled off one after another in the blink of an eye to show the characters' dramatic changes of moods.

"Nowadays, the facial masks are usually made of silk. The masks are painted with different designs and assembled with a transparent thread. They are pasted onto the performer's face, with the thread fastened somewhere on the costume. When it's needed, the performer can tear down a mask under the cover of a quick movement of the hand or head. It's a way to express inner feelings through visible facial expressions. Of course it's by no means easy to do it well. You must be very fast and also be deft and beautiful in the movement. A performer has to receive hard training and practice a long time to become a face-changing master."

Now we have gained some clues into the techniques of face changing, but the problem is, even though you have known the method, you may still wonder how the performers manage to pull down multiple layers of masks one by one so quickly and skillfully. Well, you can let your imagination run wild but may never know the answer. As Sichuan Opera actor Lan Jiafu says, the mystery of the technique is where the charm of Sichuan opera lies.

"Face changing is a unique technique integral to Sichuan opera. Its importance to the opera is just like the conjuring tricks to the magicians. You know, magicians would never reveal their secrets. So it is with the face changing performers. If the trade secrets are all disclosed to the public, the performance will lose its mystery and artistic appeal."

Sichuan Opera has been one of the most attractive art forms in the hearts of the Sichuan people. In the provincial capital of Chengdu, people can enjoy Sichuan opera performances everyday at some theatres and teahouses. You can sit at an old-styled table, sip a cup of tea and sample some snacks, while delighting in the excellent live performances. 

Alright, let's call it a day from the beautiful home of Sichuan Opera. I'm YF, see you next time.

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B: That was the sixth part of the Sichuan knowledge contest. Let's hear the two questions one more time:

A: Question No. 1: What's the most famous performing technique in Sichuan Opera?
And question No. 2: 12. Is Sichuan Opera performed daily in Chengdu?

B: If you know the answers, please email them to us at crienglish@cri.com.cn.

A: And with that, we end this edition of Listeners' Garden. Thanks for joining us. I'm LPC.

B: And I'm AE, hoping to see you again at the same time next week.