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In China, traditional mask plays are called
Nahee. Nahee in China is called in various
names according to region including Nadanghee,
Jihee, Gwansaekhee, Jeyanghee, Sagonghee,
Dongjahee, Byeoninhee, Seongo Nahee, Hodosinhee
and Dangonghee.
Nahee is mask play originating from Narye.
Because the core of Narye was ritual for expelling
plagues and demons, it was held in a mystic
and solemn atmosphere. Over time, however,
its ritual for expelling became weak and the
entertaining aspect was strengthened, and
Narye developed into a form of play using
masks. Nahee, the Chinese mask play, was established
in the Sung Dynasty, particularly in the Southern
Sung Dynasty.
Except a few including Byeoninhui of the Yi
tribe, Chinese masks express the nature and
characteristics of characters using the whole
of the head and the face. The top of each
mask is decorated with a hat or a crown. The
decoration is a hat for common people and
a crown for warlords, but a horn, a divine
beast, a divine bird, a queer animal or an
ancestor divinity for gods.
Particularly, Guizhou Province is a treasury
of mask plays. There are extremely diverse
contents mask plays as well as masks and they
are valued high artistically. Nadanghee in
Guizhou Province uses 24 masks. They appear
in one of four types, which are good divinities(good,
honest and kind divinities), ugly divinities(brave,
ugly, queer and stately divinities), secular
figures (figures described realistic without
transformation or exaggeration) and clowns(comic
characters with a distorted nose and mouth,
exposed teeth and deformed mouth, thin eyebrows
and split eyes, the absence of the lower jaw,
etc.)
Jihees in Guizhou Province are mostly based
on wars in history, there are many warlord
characters. Each Jihee has 45~100 masks. Each
mask is one of four types, which are warlord
(military commander), priest, clown and animal.
On the other hand, lion plays have been handed
down throughout China and most of them are
characteristically ritual for exorcism. Bansa
in Hubei calls from house to house and performs
acrobatic feats in the garden, and the house
owner also throws small fire crackers to cheer
up. Because the lion is known to be effective
in exorcism and driving out devil spirits
from the house, people welcome the lion. Seongsa
in the Yeongnam Region, Kwangtung Province
hangs around streets and alleys and calls
from door to door. This is called 'Chaecheong.’ |
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