(4) if he treads "in the air", this means ascending the staircase. (5) when two men are holding an oar - this indicates the existence of a pontoon bridge for someone to use it to get to a nearby boat or sampan.
(6) two big flags, each bearing the imprint of a wheel, held by a man or woman in each hand, with a noble lady in the middle, indicates that the lady is sitting in a chariot.
(7) punishment or degradation of an official or scholar is indicated by "taking away his hat".
(8) if a man wears a heavy balaclava, that means he is on a long distance trip or in severe cold.
(9) there is no eating scene in Peking Opera. Drinking wine is denoted by raising the wine cup, with the right hand, to the lip, and hiding the movement by raising the sleeve of the left arm.
(10) a man without a hat, constantly swinging his hair from side to side or tapping his finger on his forehead, or the constant rubbing of hands means he is in trouble and does not know how to get out of it.
(11) why does an important figure walk from the back of the stage to the centre in a funny gait? This is because the Chinese theatre usually has no curtain, as the Western theatre does, so he has to perform the action in a dignified way.
(12) wiping the eye with the sleeve denotes that the actor or actress is weeping or crying. I don't know why, but possibly handkerchiefs were not used in China in former times.
(13) you will find that, in some of the play, a chair is used to represent the front door of a house or cave house.
(14) a painted cloth screen, with an opening in the middle, represents the city wall and the entrance to the city.
(15) you never see a man sleeping on a bed with a pillow. To portray that he is sleeping, he always sits upright in a chair, with his day clothing on, behind a cloth screen.
The Painted Face Actors
How much do you know about these painted Faces? From behind these facades, how much can you make out of it, to foretell the kind of character or personality of the man the actor is trying to represent on the stage? The following few hints maybe of help for you to understand the character of the man in history that the actor is portraying.