CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Chinese traditional opera art needs to be inherited. Five years ago, Chongqing Sichuan Opera Theatre selected the first batch of students for promoting Sichuan Opera who are also its first batch of students after Chongqing became a municipality. This June, they graduated and will officially perform on the Sichuan Opera stage. These photos taken in a period of more than half a year recorded their growth.

Chongqing Sichuan Opera Theatre, stands at the junction of fork-shaped Gumufeng Interchange with endless traffic stream outside the white wall. Early in the morning, at Jinshan Avenue in Yubei District, there was a mild and indirect singing from the yard of the Theatre. A girl was practicing singing.

Sichuan Opera is one of the traditional Chinese operas, with origin time unknown. Sichuan opera is composed of five tunes including Kunqiang, Gaoqiang, Huqin, Tanxi and Dengdiao and has rich connotation. On May 20, 2006, with the approval of the State Council, Sichuan opera was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

The Sichuan Opera needs to be inherited but there is a temporary shortage of talents. In June 2014, a selection test was held in a class room of Chongqing College of Culture and Arts and 28 students were selected. The selected students didn’t know that they are the first batch of Sichuan Opera performing candidates after Chongqing becoming a municipality.

The students about ten years old are pure and have no idea about their future but realized that a gate has opened for them. They had culture class, performance class, dance class, physique class, acrobatics class and singing class.

No step, no mile. Hard training is a daily routine and after years’ training, teachers and students become more and more tacit.

“Split kick, turn over, handstand…” These tips are the basic skills of opera performers.

Students learn one play in a semester and practice it again and again. They comfort each other when it is really intolerable. In return, they are high-spirited and vigorous on stage.

They must stand and sit properly. In Sichuan Opera, every gesture and motion belongs to body skills which require the comprehensive expression with hands, eyes, waist, legs, feet and steps. 

Sichuan Opera makeup needs to wear hairnet and sliver, sideburns, paint grease, pencil eyebrow, draw eye makeup, print face and so on. Wearing hairnet will raise temporal muscle, to make eyebrow eye upturned showing dignity and sliver may lead to nausea and dizziness. The sideburns are used for adjusting feature.

In Sichuan Opera facial makeup, red represents faithful character, white represents treacherous character, green and blue represents greenwood hero, and gold, and silver & gray are mostly used to represent the god, immortal, monster and other characters.

At the backstage, the national first-class actor Tan Xiaohong (left) was giving lessons: "Pay attention to every detail and every movement on the stage shall be perfect."

The best time to teach is between rehearsals and performances. One more practice, one more experience.

After a performance, students were stepping off the stage and returning to the reality. But the life on the stage has become a part of real life.

A girl was folding the costume carefully. How long will it accompany with her?

They graduated in June 2019. The past five years have passed like a lightsome petal falling beside. The traditional art has its successors. Hope they can stick to the art for a whole life. (Translated by Chen Yue, Fathom Language Limited)