Dan (Chinese opera)

Dan (Chinese: , p dàn), (Wade-Giles : tan), is the general name for female roles in Chinese opera, often referring to leading roles. They may be played by either actors or actresses.

There are a few different kinds of dan in Chinese opera. The commonly seen ones are 'Guimen Dan', 'Hua Dan', 'Daoma Dan', 'Wu Dan', 'Lao Dan' and 'Cai Dan'. Each different kind of dan has its own unique characteristics.

The Guimen Dan (, "boudoir-door role") is the role of the virtuous lady. It is also known as Qingyi (, "verdant-clad") or Zhengdan (, "straight role"). Guimen Dan are normally mature and sometimes married women. They may be rich or poor, young or of middle age, but they have to be mature women to fall under this category. Guimen Dan focus more on singing and they have little movement. They sing in a very high pitched and piercing voice. Opera schools in China have difficulty recruiting students for this kind of role, since it requires a good voice, good looks, and a good height. The most famous Guimen Dan of the last century was Mei Lanfang. Examples of Guimen roles are Du Liniang (杜丽娘) from The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭) and Wang Baochuan (王宝钏）from Wujiapo (武家坡).

A Hua Dan (, "flowery role") is a lively, vivacious young female character. They normally wear short blouses with pants or skirts. Unlike the Guimen Dan, the Hua Dan focuses more on movements and speech. They must be able to speak quickly and clearly. They also need to project an image of cuteness and innocence as Hua Dan always represent girls of around 12–16 years old. Often, a Guimen Dan is accompanied by a Hua Dan maid. Hong Niang (红娘) of the Romance of the West Chamber (西厢记) and Yan Xijiao (阎惜姣) of Wulongyuan (乌龙院) have involved the role of Hua Dan.

A Daoma Dan (, "sword-and-horse role") is a young female warrior. The style of performance usually involves horseriding with a spear. This category is superficially similar to Wu Dan, but there is a difference. Daoma Dan does not fight as much as Wu Dan. They do more stunts and dancing with the spear or whatever weapons they have. Daoma Dan needs to sing, which is performed while dancing or doing stunts and requires great stamina. Daoma Dan usually wears female warrior costumes with the flags behind. Examples of Daoma Dan are Liang Hongyu and Mu Guiying. Daoma Dan is also the original Chinese title of the 1986 Hong Kong film Peking Opera Blues, directed by Tsui Hark.

...
Wikipedia