Comments on: Peeking opera

Peeking opera

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:56:54 -0800

With apologies to the European masters [ARTY NUDITY] Beijing photographer 潘鉞 (Pan Yue) recreates some famous European paintings in a Beijing Opera style. Other series by yer man: Farmers in Opera costume, Secret Opera Main link via.

By: sotonohito

sotonohito — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:11:19 -0800

I thought it was nifty, and my wife who is an art geek thought it was utterly fantastic. She also managed to identify every one of them from the photograph.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:17:03 -0800

Great post! Interesting how the Farmers in Opera costume look so wrong: they're in the costumes and they have the makeup, but they don't have the look, the theatrical attitude, to pull it off. Of course, that's what makes those photos so interesting. And the Secret Opera link, those are some of the most pleasing examples of nude art photography I've seen in a long time.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:24:29 -0800

flapjax - it says in the text at the 'Farmers' link that some of Pan's subjects were rural performers in county opera troupes, and some just villagers taking part in amateur dramatic-type efforts at festival times. I reckon I could have a guess which were which.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:35:31 -0800

Ahh, Abiezer, there you go again, you Chinese-readin' so-and-so... ;-) You gotta start providing translations for some of these Chinese sites, man, so we can make some educated coments about this stuff! Anyway, thanks again for the post!

By: Slothrop

Slothrop — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:49:46 -0800

I saw a performance of Beijing Opera when I was in Beijing in 2004. It was a bit of an endurance-spectator-sport (I think ours ran 4 hours or so), but it was also one of the great spectacles I've seen. If you (anyone) ever has a chance to go, I would very much recommend it.

By: piratebowling

piratebowling — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 06:02:26 -0800

Lovely! I'm definitely passing this on to a few people.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 06:04:50 -0800

There is a bit of biographical background on Pan I thought of translating but was too lazy to, but since you ask I am goaded into action (any excuse to show off):

Pan Yue 潘钺 was born 1968 in Beijing to a Manchu family. Studied oil painting at the Central Academy of Art, graduating with a Masters' in 1992. Had some exhibitions of his paintings in the '90s and worked with a gallery in Taiwan, regularly showing work in Taipei. Went to Paris in 2000 for six months study at the Académie des Beaux-Arts (?). Has been teaching art at the Forestry University in Beijing since 1992.

The blurb is by an old classmate of his, and quotes Pan as saying of the farmer's pics: "They're some of the most real of contemporary faces; so many things mixed up together - tradition and modern reality, celebration and apathy, a gorgeous exterior and a hollowness. Although they're made up, it doesn't adorn and conceal; it emphasises and refines." So I reckon you spotted something the photographer intended flapjax.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:02:46 -0800

Interesting images, although they have fallen some way short of recreating the complexities of The Ambassadors by Holbein :)

By: gomichild

gomichild — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:39:36 -0800

You gotta start providing translations for some of these Chinese sites, man, so we can make some educated coments about this stuff! Yeah he could post them on his blog! oh wait....

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:47:57 -0800

I'd hate to disturb its sleep for mere content, gomi.

By: sy

sy — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:24:05 -0800

This is awesome. I'd be interested to know if fire&wings is totally right here. Are any of the props/costume elements in the Chinese version iconographically analogous to the objects in the original (globe, lute, scroll, etc.)? Presumably the best joke, the fact that "holbein" means "hollow bone" and therefore "skull", is untranslatable.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:37:45 -0800

Abiezer - google has a language translation tool. Here is the 'Farmers' url put through it. It's not perfect, but... still, wow. Frankly, my mind still gets blown away every time the translation tool comes through, especially when translating Chinese to English. (No snarkiness intended, if any came through, please run this post through google's forum posting desnarkifying tool.)

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:48:25 -0800

Heh, porpoise. That's simultaneously quite impressive and comfortingly bad. I don't think I'll be losing too much translation work to the machines just yet, but the sentence structure of Chinese isn't so far from English, so they might come up with something better soon. A friend has built this tool which is looking quite promising. It's two hours into a very loud fire-crackering New Year here, so season's greetings to one and all.

By: CKZ

CKZ — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:16:08 -0800

I get a "Server not found" error. Is there a mirror somewhere?

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:23:49 -0800

Marvelous post! Thanks Abiezer. What fun and an unexpected, interesting find! Love complex and beautiful culture clashes like this. Hilarious renditions and fascinating too. The world is so amazing.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:26:28 -0800

And "Peeking Opera"! Ha! :)

By: porpoise

porpoise — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:50:42 -0800

OH... whoops, I guess I meant flapjax at midnite, not Abiezer. Regardless, thanks for posting these, Ab!

By: amethysts

amethysts — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:56:35 -0800

"it doesn't adorn and conceal; it emphasises and refines." i had that exact same thought about most of the ladies on there. but the men seemed like the opposite.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:47:50 -0800

This is awesome. In some cases, I prefered the Chinese re-make to the original paintings. (Particularly the portraits in profile - those were amazing.)

By: CKZ

CKZ — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:05:03 -0800

Oh, the photos are mirrored at the last link...