Tiger in Traditional Chinese Culture

To help celebrate the Year of the Tiger, Beijing’s Capital Museum is holding a tiger-themed exhibition, showcasing the vast and diverse range of cultural connotations that the tiger has held throughout China’s long history.

In the eyes of ancient people, animals were given rich and deep symbolic meanings beside the biologic properties. Twelve kinds of animals, which have close relationships with human life, became twelve symbolic animals representing the Earthly Branches specially selected by the Chinese traditional culture. These animals became divine beasts entrusted with spiritual sustenance and were closely linked with every Chinese person’s life.

Among them, the tiger, as the king of beasts, was formidable because of its ferocity and might. The tiger is regarded as the symbol of majesty and power. Sometimes it even becomes a totem and appears in military affairs, politics, religion and social life.

The tiger is also esteemed as the guardian because of its power and divinity. The images of tigers become very kind when they act as the guardians of children with a view of daily life instead of power. In the thought of Chinese people, the spirit of tiger is similar to the virtue of man of honor – moderation inside but tenacity outside.

People born in the Year of the Tiger, the third year of the Chinese zodiac cycle, are regarded as brave and strong.

Every year the museum hosts an exhibition based on one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Entitled Tiger in Traditional Chinese Culture, the exhibition features cultural relics dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1134-771 BC) and contemporary artworks such as tiger-themed paper cuttings and Tibetan brass statues.

The exhibition features a wide array of materials and items, including antiques in the shape of a tiger along with descriptions, paintings and artifacts, combining to present a vivid explanation of the tiger’s important role in traditional culture.

In the exhibition, the dragon and tiger mirror shows ancient people believed that the tiger would protect their families from evil.

In addition to the tiger-shaped jade pillow, jade sculptures and a ceramic brush pot with a tiger painted on it from the Qing Dynasty show the strong tiger was still appreciated when agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished in Chinese society.

Tigers are loved and worshiped by Chinese ethnic groups. The exhibition shows the image of the tiger has been embroidered on clothes and accessories as well as shoes.

Tigers are also favored among contemporary Chinese artists, whose traditional Chinese paintings, stone sculptures and animations are also displayed in the show.

The exhibition hall, which is painted in red, is decorated with traditional Chinese gates. Folk musicians and handicraft artists have been invited to perform during the exhibition.

The exhibition also includes a large number of photographs of rare tigers captured in the wild, vividly depicting their habits and daily life and aiming to help raise public awareness on protecting the endangered species.

The exhibition runs from Feb 4 to March 21, from 9 am to 5 pm. Closed on Monday. Free.

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Face behind the Mask

Most performers of Peking Opera begin training at 7. Iranian Ghaffar Pourazar began at nearly five times that age.

"I was a big joke in the basic training class. I was 32, most of my classmates were kids and the youngest was only 6," he recalls with a smile.

This former computer animator, who was educated in Britain, is said to be the first foreigner to undergo and complete formal training in Peking Opera.

Every morning in Beijing's Wanfangting Park in Fengtai district, he can be seen tossing an assortment of swords and sticks in the air, challenging his vocal chords and testing his body with gravity-defying acrobatics. He is perfecting the moves to play the classic Peking Opera role of Monkey King.

Pourazar fell in love with Peking Opera one summer evening in 1993 at a performance by the Beijing Youth Troupe at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. "I couldn't believe my eyes," says the 48-year-old.

He followed the troupe and ended up in Beijing. Without telling his parents, he enrolled in a Beijing opera school. That marked the start of a determined mission to take this ancient Chinese performance art to the West.

Pourazar has not only translated and performed an English version of Journey to the West, one of the four great classical novels of China, but also combined Shakespeare and other Western masterpieces with Peking Opera.

He also directs the International Center for Beijing Opera, and the International Monkey King Troupe which he founded. They enroll both Chinese professionals and foreign amateurs and have performed in many countries such as the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and Iran.

"Last year we visited 14 US universities, and set off a renaissance in Peking Opera that greatly raised the awareness of how entertaining and exciting it can be," Pourazar says. His many successes over the past 16 years, studying and performing Peking Opera, have not been without pain, says Lang Lang, one of his Chinese friends.

"Can you imagine a foreigner who can barely speak Chinese actually performing Peking Opera on stage in China?"

But Pourazar was determined to put in hard work and soon had the respect of the veterans.

Zhou Jingsheng, an actor with the Beijing Opera Troupe, recalls his surprise when he first visited Pourazar's home in Beijing.

It was more like a training room with costumes, books, magazines and DVDs about Peking Opera scattered everywhere.

"His determination and perseverance give us very little excuse to cut slack or give up," says Ma Younian, a veteran performer whom Pourazar consults often.

Zhang Jinlai, better know by his stage name Liu Xiao Ling Tong, rose to fame after starring as the Monkey King in the TV drama Journey to the West.

He, too, is all praise for Pourazar's performance. "He has grasped the spirit of the monkey," he says. "With a few lines painted on his face, he looks just like the Monkey King."

After Pourazar graduated from Beijing Opera Troupe in 1996, he moved on to a post-graduate program at the National Academy for Traditional Chinese Opera.

However, he laments that "the popularity of Peking Opera is fading with young Chinese more attracted to rock 'n' roll, hip-hop, R&B, pop music and disco". Unable to make ends meet with performances, he teaches English twice a week.

"My mission is to make Peking Opera accessible to a worldwide audience. It is one of the most marvelous arts in the world. Its charm will come back one day."

Next April, he might have a chance to share the stage with Liu Xiao Ling Tong, in Huai'an, Jiangsu province. Huai'an is the hometown of Wu Cheng'en, who authored Journey to the West in the 16th century.