Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back to as far as the third century CE. There are numerous regional branches of Chinese opera, of which the Sichuanese opera is one of the most famous types. Regionally Chengdu remains to be the main home of Sichuanese opera. Being right in the middle of an Ancient Chinese art source, we just could not miss the opportunity to see a play.

Luckily, on the same weekend when Chengdu office branch organized this activity for the interns our dear fellow colleagues from the Zhuhai office were in town too and joined us. We met at the Lazy Bones Hostel (highly recommended!), where our two office branches met for the first time and had a very nice dinner together after introducing ourselves.

All of us already heard of Chinese opera before, some having saw it on TV, but to actually be in the theatre in person was a lot more exciting. A wide variety of artistic talents were presented by the opera troupe, from historical drama and love stories to comedy and acrobatics. Some of us really enjoyed the puppet play, though the shadow play was also very interesting, especially when it spit fire.

But still, the most famous and exciting stunt is the face-changing. Fortunately, our event-organizer Chris got us seats in the very front rows. Even though we still couldn’t figure out the secret of this old traditional performance, it made it all the more exciting.

Of course we could not call it a night yet and went out for couple drinks after the show. After the traditional Ancient Chinese opera we went straight to Shamrock, Chengdu’s local expat watering hole, which gave the night the perfect touch and culture balance.

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