This opera face drawing belongs to a collection drawn by Ly Singko. This collection documents the unique face designs from the traditional Chinese opera and was included in Ly’s unpublished manuscript ‘How to Appreciate Peking Opera’, a guidebook for the “non-initiated and non-Chinese to come to know the secret of Chinese stagecraft.” Seen here is the embellished face design of the character Mao Ben, who plays the clown role (丑) in the Henan opera. Typical of clowns in Chinese opera, he has a white patch painted on his face to indicate his role as a clown.Born in Beijing and awarded a scholarship to read philosophy in Belgium, Ly Singko was a Chinese intellectual and avid supporter of the Chinese arts. After World War Two, he moved to Singapore and served as the editor of the Chinese newspaper ‘Sin Chew Jit Poh’ and later as senior editorial writer at the newspaper ‘Nanyang Siang Pau’.
