172
BOOK REVIEWS
There are emperors, princes, ministers, generals, scholars, officials and the corresponding female parts, their sons and their daughters. They are dressed in gorgeous costumes and they sing and speak in a very literary language, and artistic voice, which even for ordinary Chinese is difficult to understand. As a contrast there are the common people, the servants and soldiers, who are dressed mostly in a simple dark gown and often appear as clowns with a white patch painted into the middle of their face. They speak in the common Peking dialect, sometimes even making rude jokes, in order to amuse the public and give it a chance to relax between listening to the very strenuous singing parts. This can also be found in the traditional western theatre. However, Miss Halson does not mention this technique of contrasting the two groups of society in behaviour, appearance and language, and does not give any background to the social groupings and their relationships, and to the examination system of Imperial China, all of which are absolutely essential for any understanding. Scott, at least, touches on the subject in his introduction.
Miss Halson divides the roles into four major forms: male, female, painted-face roles and comic characters, with their subdivisions of young and old, military or scholar, attributing to them appearance, acting and voices. The book is illustrated with ten plates, very artistic brush-drawings by a Japanese artist called Ishizuka; these show ten different characters which give the reader very good impressions of the appearance of the actors. Scott also has about 10 sketches, beautifully done by himself, but not systematically chosen or arranged.
Scott tries to describe a subject in a very detailed way, whereas Miss Halson only touches upon subjects, giving only a few examples. For instance: under the section of costumes Mr. Scott gives all the major forms with all their subdivisions and their Chinese names, often as many as ten. Miss Halson only introduces the major costumes, but she has the advantage of having a detailed technical drawing of each. There is, for example, the costume representing an armour, worn by generals and commanders. It has four flags or pennants sticking out at the back of the neck. The costume is very stiff and heavily embroidered, consisting of a front and back-flap, the latter cut into stripes; there is a tigerhead-design on the front, the arms are tight, as this actor has to perform acrobatics. Scott's description is already more interesting; he says that there is
172
BOOK REVIEWS
There are emperors, princes, ministers, generals, scholars, officials and the corresponding female parts, their sons and their daughters. They are dressed in gorgeous costumes and they sing and speak in a very literary language, and artistic voice, which even for ordinary Chinese is difficult to understand. As a contrast there are the com- mon people, the servants and soldiers, who are dressed mostly in a simple dark gown and often appear as clowns with a white patch painted into the middle of their face. They speak in the common Peking dialect, sometimes even making rude jokes, in order to amuse the public and give it a chance to relax between listening to the very strenuous singing parts. This can also be found in the traditional western theatre. However, Miss Halson does not men- tion this technique of contrasting the two groups of society in be- haviour, appearance and language, and does not give any back- ground to the social groupings and their relationships, and to the examination system of Imperial China, all of which are absolutely essential for any understanding. Scott, at least, touches on the sub- ject in his introduction.
Miss Halson divides the roles into four major forms: male, fe- male, painted-face roles and comic characters, with their subdivi- sions of young and old, military or scholar, attributing to them appearance, acting and voices. The book is illustrated with ten plates, very artistic brush-drawings by a Japanese artist called Ishizuka; these show ten different characters which give the reader very good impressions of the appearance of the actors. Scott also has about 10 sketches, beautifully done by himself, but not systema- tically chosen or arranged.
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Scott tries to describe a subject in a very detailed way, whereas Miss Halson only touches upon subjects, giving only a few exam- ples. For instance: under the section of costumes Mr. Scott gives all the major forms with all their subdivisions and their Chinese names, often as many as ten. Miss Halson only introduces the major costumes, but she has the advantage of having a detailed technical drawing of each. There is, for example, the costume representing an armour, worn by generals and commanders. It has four flags or pennants sticking out at the back of the neck. The costume is very stiff and heavily embroidered, consisting of a front and back- flap, the latter cut into stripes; there is a tigerhead-design on the front, the arms are tight, as this actor has to perform acrobatics. Scott's description is already more interesting; he says that there is
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