Who would you be if you could represent yourself differently? A villain? A superhero? How can we look at the masks worn in the Beijing Opera for inspiration? Why are masks worn? How does a viewer react to a mask? What makes for a strong reaction? This lesson is a preparatory lesson for my classes, as they will be learning about Asian music through the program I work for, in the 2nd half of their school year. I asked the above questions to my 3rd graders to get them thinking about how to design their mask, using a handout of Beijing Opera Masks I made for them. I explained that the color symbolism in China is different than here in America. For example, yellow in America causes feelings of happiness, and is energizing. But in China, yellow symbolizes the opposite: aggression. I wrote a chart on the board, comparing the 2 different cultural color symbolisms.
We first designed our masks in pencil, grabbing ideas from my handout - accentuating certain areas of the mask - the forehead, cheeks, mouth - all with a particular emphasis, for a particular reason.
Then students decided what 4 color they wanted to use, and colored the circles at the bottom of their paper, and wrote what the color means for their mask. Some chose to use American color symbolism, and some chose to use the symbolism of the Chinese culture. We then colored them in, and outlined in black
I did this lesson with 2, 3rd grade classes. One class is writing a paragraph about their mask, what it means to them, and where the inspiration comes from. I will post these writings soon!
