Collection of CHEN Shen Held in Macao

CHEN Shen

Ribbon-cutting for the Opening Ceremony

CHEN Shen presents souvenirs to Macao Foundation

Guests’Group Photo at Opening Ceremony

CHEN Shen introduces artworks to guests

Peking Opera Performance at Opening Ceremony

Red Peking Opera Costume

Improved Peking Opera Costume of Qi School

The Exhibition of Peking Opera Costumes Collection of CHEN Shen, hosted by Macau Foundation after nearly a year-long preparation, has been held at the exhibition hall and multi-function hall of Macao Foundation on 13-17, November with the purpose of upholding Chinese traditional culture.

Having been presided over by the collector CHEN Shen, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by SHAO Bin, Assistant Director of Department of Publicity and Culture of Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Macao SAR, ZHONG Yi, Vice-chairwoman of Administrative Committee of Macao Foundation, ZHU Miaoli, Administrative Member of Cultural Industry Fund, WANG Yuzhen, Director-general of China Beijing Opera Arts Foundation, LU Bo, President of Macao Daily, FENG Guangsheng, Deputy Director of World Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, XIAN Shenyuan, Director-general of Macao Guangdong Opera Association and REN Chong, a cultural scholar.

The exhibition displays more than 30 representative costumes of Beijing Opera and Kunqu Opera collected by CHEN Shen, Xiangsexiuqilingailiangmang, a costume once used by Mr. ZHOU Xinfang, founder of Qi school and a renowned performing artist of Beijing Opera in the 1990s, and opera performance clothing in the period of the Republic of China. All the exhibits are fine handmade embroidery with exquisite workmanship, not only showcasing the development of theatrical costumes in different periods, but also being of extremely high appreciation value, as some of these collections are presented to the public for the first time in history.

An opera costume collector, a Chinese photography historian and publisher, CHEN Shen is also a researcher of traditional Chinese opera costume with a number of works, such as Collection of Chinese Opera Costumes and History Chinese Photography Art. Being fond of the Chinese Opera art since childhood, he has started to collect the costumes of Peking Opera since the middle of 1980s, as many of which were collected from his national tour. The most exquisite model of Chinese opera costumes was from the period of Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, and the costumes from the royal palace enjoy the unprecedented reputation. Since the late 1970s, the traditional opera began to revive and flourish, resulting in manufacturing a large number of costumes tailored for the traditional opera in China from the production bases in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou. As the costume production process of this period still clinches to the tradition, it was exactly in line with CHEN Shen’s collection requirement. To this day, his collection has reached more than 200 sets (tang) and over a thousand suits. The costumes of Peking Opera, showing great diversities, are also presented clearly with different angles through his camera lens.

The Chinese opera clothing was gradually formed in the Ming dynasty. With the perfection of development of the opera in Qing dynasty, in the next 200 years, Peking Opera clothing has gradually formed a custom with integrity of the system. The costumes of Peking Opera, together with the complement and growth of inheritance and development of this art, they are the fundamentally crucial physical basis of performing history of Peking Opera China, said CHEN Shen. As this year witnesses the 170th anniversary of birth of TAN Xinpei, a great master of Peking Opera, the circle of Peking Opera has held a solemn commemoration, during which CHEN Shen claimed that invited by Macao Foundation, the exhibition is an extension and response to the TAN’s commemorative activities, the Peking Opera costumes are the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, hoping that the inheritance of collection and exhibition will bring more cultural enjoyment to the audiences in Macao.