A fine art
Wearing embroidered costumes and elaborate make-up, two actors grapple with one another on stage during a media preview performance of the Beijing Opera.
They are taking part in an art form that combines music, visual art, literature and extravagant dress to create spectacular performances which have long been a tradition in China, nurtured by court officials and emperors in the Middle Ages and still practiced today.
A performer applies her make-up before a preview performance by the Beijing Opera in Shanghai.
An assortment of colourful make-up brushes lie backstage. Author Xu Chengbei writes in a book on Beijing Opera that the elaborate make-up worn by actors has special meaning, with red faces symbolising loyalty and honour, white faces symbolising treachery, and faces with a white patch symbolising an obsequious, immoral character.
Final adjustments are made to a performer's make-up.
An actress with dark black lines accentuating her eyes pauses as she applies more make-up backstage.
Male actors apply their own make-up before the performance.
An actor applies extra detail to his face paint.
An actress waits for the performance to begin backstage.
An actor performs on stage.
Others lunge out at one another with swords during the show.
An actor holds out a skull prop as he performs.
