Peeling

Peeling is a relatively complicated way to change face, which requires to draw the facial mask on a piece of silk beforehand, cut it and tie a handful of silk thread to each mask before pasting them to the actor’s face. The silk thread is tied to the actor’s costume like his belt, which is easy to operate but not eye-catching. During the performance, the mask will be peeled one by one under the cover of dancing. For example, bowel boy in Madame White Snake can change face into green, red, white and black and so on for seven or eight times on end. Moreover, the thief in Jiu Zheng Building and Niu Long in Wang Niang Beach are also performed by peeling. Peeling is somewhat difficult. For one thing, the adhesive can not be used too much in case the mask can not be peeled or all the masks are peeled in one stroke; for another, the actor’s movement must be neat and fast and conduct a skillful performance to deceive the eyes of the audience.