This opera mask drawing belongs to a collection drawn by Ly Singko. This collection documents the unique mask designs from the traditional Beijing opera and was included in Ly’s unpublished manuscript ‘How to Appreciate Peking Opera’, a guidebook for the “non-initiated and non-Chinese to come to know the secret of Chinese stagecraft.”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 mask of Fei Zhong, a character in the novel ‘Feng Shen Bang’ (Canonization of Deities). He was a treacherous official who, together with You Hun, asserted great influence on King Zhou.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’.
