Chinese Theatre Masks

In one of my sketches I came across the idea of a girl wearing a Chinese theatre mask. As I child I have seen many theatre plays where the Chinese would wear such masks and they have always scared and fascinated me due to their dramatic colours and facial expressions.

It is their facial expressions that I want to find out for this project as it could lead to the psychology of faces.

Beijing Opera Masks - http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Opera/

I came across this website while I was doing some research, and they have a page that explains the colours on the mask and they represent. They have also provided examples of masks in these colours along with the character names.

Red – Guan Yu is the name of a very important general who was famed for his loyalty towards his emperor, Liu Bei, and he was a perfect example of what the colour represents; devotion, bravery, loyalty and courage.

Black – Black is a very dramatic colour that symbolises roughness and fierceness. The mask shown above (the Zhang Fei mask) is of General Zhang Fei who had a selfless and bold character.

Yellow – Yellow is also another colour used to reflect fierceness as well as cool-headness and ambition. Tu Xingsun was a “dwarf” general who had special powers in the play “Three Mountain Pass”

Purple – Purple signifies sophistication, cool-headness and uprightness. A purple mask could be used to portray a just and noble character.

Blue – Blue signifies faithfulness and someone who is firm and steadfast, sticking strongly to their faith/ a person. It also is the colour used for an intelligent and fierce character.

White - Unlike Western culture where white represents purity and heavenly, white it an extremely unlucky and “bad” colour. If the character has a white mask it means that he is treacherous, sinister, suspicious, and crafty, hence why all villains would have a white mask. Cao Cao was a prime minister during the time of the Three Kingdoms who was extremely powerful and cruel.

Green – Green is also used for villains although are more violent instead of evil. However it could also represent a person who is extremely stubborn, has a total lack of self-restraint, and violent.

Pretty Painted Face – These are the clowns of the opera who enliven the performance. Jiang Gan fawned over Cao Cao and was his assistant.

All written in own words, referenced from http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Opera/China-opera-colors.html 

Conclusion:
I think that by looking at these masks I realise the differences between Eastern and Western culture and the way they connect colours with emotions. Red, in Western culture, is viewed to be the colour of danger, anger, or passion... But in Chinese culture - as mentioned above - it represents devotion, bravery, loyalty and courage.
So if I do go ahead with the idea of using masks I must first think of my audience; would they be from the West, or the East? I think that New Scientist is a UK based magazine so maybe using Chinese masks would throw people off a bit because of the clash in connotations.