Chinese Opera Mask

This is my first website done for my assignment. Although my website is not very good and still need a lot of improvement but I will try my best next time.
http://www.shireenpeh.com/

This website has given me a lot of tough times during coding because I am very familiar with the software. It is not as simple as I thought it would be, I never realised a simple website needed so many coding. When I was given the topic for the website which was digital heritage website, I instantly thought of Chinese opera because I never seen a Malaysia Chinese opera before because they are so rare and I only saw it appeared on Hong Kong television drama. Chinese opera has always fascinates me with its singing and acrobatic stunts, but what really fascinates me is the opera masks. The masks are so colourful and yet mysterious.

I never knew there was an association for Chinese opera existed in Malaysia and I found one, it's called Kuantan Chinese Opera Association.
http://www.mana.my/heritage-of-malaysia-empowering-the-artistic-heritage-of-chinese-opera/

Back into dynastic periods, Chinese opera were performed exclusively for the emperor as an entertainment, but as time goes by Chinese opera are now open for public. Besides that, they also perform during the lunar seventh month Chinese Ghost Festival as a form of entertainment to the spirits and audience. These masks were based on the ancient face painting tradition where warriors decorated themselves to scare the enemy.

Moreover, I found that different colour of the mask stands for different meaning and characters because I always thought those patterns and colour were just for decoration until I had done my research.

Blue- staunchness and fierceness

Red- devotion and courage

Purple- uprightness and sophistication

Green- impulsive and violent

Black- roughness and fierceness

Yellow- ambitious and cool-headedness

White- sinisterness and treacherousness


The colour of the masks can be related to semiotics, for example:
signifier- colour of the mask
signified- characteristic of the mask
Therefore, the colour of the mask let the audience know what kind of characteristic is it.

I think we need to preserve our cultural heritage in order to pass it down to the next generation, but now it seems that less and less youngsters are willing to involve themselves in traditional activities which is kind of depressing to look at.