Lecture Review

On Thursday 8th May we attended a guest lecture on both traditional Chinese Opera makeup and Fashion in China.

"Chinese Opera Mask art and Chinese Tradition"

This was the first part of the lecture and was presented by Victor Tong- a lecturer in Fashion & Image Design at the Hong Kong Design Institute. The lecture focused on traditional Chinese opera masks and make up, and told us how shapes and colour play an essential part in telling the audience about a character's personality.
Brow, Eye, Lip and Nose shapes are one of the first features that can be used to identify the personality traits of a character, and Victor Tong gave us a few examples of brow and eye types.

Colours are also important in telling the audience certain characteristics;
Red- Loyalty, Riteousness, Luck. A typical character is Guan Yu.
Pink- Elderly, Sinility and not as energetic as before. Eg Lian Po.
Black- Impartiality, Moral dignity. Eg Bao Gong.
White- Crafty, Deceitful. Eg Cao Cao.
Yellow- Cruel, Valour. Eg Ying Bu.
Green- Violent, Impulsive and Lacking restraint. Eg Cheng Yao Jin.
Blue- Bravery, Stubbornness, Fierceness. Eg Hou Dun.
Golden- Deities, Spirits and Gods. Typical character is Goderlang.

Learning of the significance of colours and shapes on the face really interested me and has got me thinking of ways in which I could incorporate this knowledge into future ideas and creations.

Semiotics of the face
Victor Tong spoke of how the Chinese Opera was made to not only entertain but also educate the audience, and the various arrangements of symbols, shapes and words can help to do this in various ways.

Mask examples for a few traditional Chinese Opera Characters.

Overall I was quite interested in some of the ideas presented in this lecture. It definitely left me wanting to look a little more into colour and shape symbolism , and I will definitely notice use of colour and shape more in the future, especially in Chinese art, fashion and make-up.

The Fashion Battlefield in China

This part of the lecture was lead by Pacino Wan, a successful Fashion Designer in Hong Kong. This part of the lecture was very rushed as we began to run out of time so I found it quite difficult to keep up and take notes.

Pacino Wan spoke of his personal experiences trying to get started in the Fashion industry, ans told us of how he struggled to pay rent on his small store on the high street where he first showed his designs. He started off by providing designs and templates for other, larger brands and manufacturers before founding his own personal label "She and He" in 1992, where he sold his own designs independently.

As I mentioned this part of the lecture was rushed so after a quick talk on Pacino Wan's experiences, he showed us a long video of his most recent fashion show.

I don't feel as if i really learned much from this part of the lecture as I found it was quite rushed and I found it difficult to get into the 

Hero- Colour Analysis

"Hero" uses colour in a very obvious way to help the storyline of the film. As the film is set through a series of flashbacks, colour is used to separate the stories and assist the audience to connect with each memory.

Red is the predominant colour in the first flashback, and of all the flashbacks this is the most intense, passionate one featuring murder and love affairs. Without realising, the audience feels much more intensely about this memory than the others, and I believe this is definitely helped by the red tones.

The second flashback is in blue, and the storyline features a tale of surrendering and almost giving up. The scenes are much slower and more peaceful, and in the fight scene I noticed that the girl’s (Snow) clothing becomes paler blue as the fight goes on, and when she surrenders herself it is almost white. This shows how she is fading back as a character, and is very different from the intense red, fiery woman in the previous flashback.

The third flashback is all white and tells a story of honour and purity, as well as a very well planned, cunning plot for the characters. Like the other flashbacks, every scene is saturated with the chosen colour, making it harder to ignore.

Green is then used in the final flashback. This flashback is different as it is not Nameless memory, but Broken Sword’s. Green fills the screen as he talks of his and Snow’s relationship, and his memory of when he had the opportunity to kill the King himself. This flashback features more reminiscing than telling a story of battle. The use of green confused me at first, as to me it brings thoughts of nature, especially the pastel greens that were used. I find it difficult to connect with colour to some scenes of this flashback- at first I thought the director was showing us how natural the relationship between Snow and Broken Sword was, but I am unsure of the meaning behind the colour when Broken Sword is fighting the king.

Between the flashbacks, the palace scenes with the army are all very grey, with the only colours being the reds in the army flags. This really helps to show off and emphasize the colours in the flashbacks.