Amateur King of Masks in Oakland comments on gender
Remember the classic Wu Tianming film King of Masks? It featured the old Chinese art of "bian lian" or changing faces. I hadnt had the chance to see it live, but someone was performing it in Oakland Chinatown. This person kind of stumbled in the middle and got the masks stuck, but it was a good effort. It was a little dissapointing to hear him talk afterwards about how bian lian is supposed to be only taught to men and never to women to protect the secret. Judging from the various performance arts around the world, including Carnatic music, I think gender equality in art is somewhat a given now. Not that one should necessarily infer much culture from an internationally popular movie...but King of Masks (bian lian wang) showed in a nuanced way that ultimately, the gender issue has became irrelevant. I would like to see more bian lian performances in the future, regardless of who is doing it.Do some youtube searches to check out this unique art for yourself.
