1. Project statement
Peking opera was very influential in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912), but its’ popularity is in decline. Míngjuer (名角儿) app is a place for people to learn and interact with Peking Opera masks in the 21st century. Within the app, there are four sections: Discover, Create, Apply, and PekGo. To let people discover the culture and history of Peking opera—the two main features of the Míngjuer app show the basic predisposition of a particular character/mask; and how they achieve the contradictory unity of beauty and ugliness. Based on the two main features, I designed the visualization of the Peking Opera mask—and also allow users to create their masks according to their unique personalities and discover the rich history of the Peking opera.
Míngjuer app attracts users of various age groups, from younger generations to senior citizens. As culture is without boundaries, people in diverse age groups can perceive and enjoy the modern re-enactment and recreation of the Peking Opera. The app’s functionalities aim to draw young people’s interest and allow the older generation to rediscover information about the past. The App also brings Peking opera to the present by telling the history, creating personalized masks, and giving the opportunity to discover the lesser-known culture of Peking opera performances.
2. Mask Research
Peking Opera Masks
There are many rules and traditions regarding mask patterns, including the use of facial expression to illuminate a character’s personality and the application of symbolic colors to aid in audience recognition.
Patterns and meanings
I redesigned the Peking Opera Mask by breaking down and standardizing each element of the mask, including face pattern, eyebrow and forehead. That makes it transmission-friendly in social media.
Forehead
In traditions of mask painting, forehead is where reveal one’s destiny or aspiration. This is the most creative area and needs to be highly customized. I did a questionnaire to my friends to ask what their futures be like and I got all the different answers. So in my mask design, forehead is left as canvas, people can either choose the pattern provided or upload/draw their own ‘destiny’.
![]()
In traditions of mask painting, forehead is where reveal one’s destiny or aspiration. This is the most creative area and needs to be highly customized. I did a questionnaire to my friends to ask what their futures be like and I got all the different answers. So in my mask design, forehead is left as canvas, people can either choose the pattern provided or upload/draw their own ‘destiny’.
3. Persona
Persona
Two main types of users include Super Fan, and Young Adult.
Super Fan is middle- to old-aged, self-entertaining and self-satisfying players. They hope to connect and share with Young Adults, who are born in post-1990’s and post-2000’s, and Chinese culture is entering renaissance leading by their participation. They wear traditional Han costumes, write and appreciate poems, so the Peking Opera Mask app can become another trending topic in the community.
4. Design
I named the APP Míngjuěr. Mingjuer means famous character. In this app, everyone could be Mingjer, a famous/special person. For the logo, I took the letter J from Mingjuer. It is designed to look like a half-Peking Opera mask.
I want to take the two features of Peking Opera masks which it shows the the basic predisposition of a particular character/mask; and it achieves the contradictory unity of beauty and ugliness to today’s avatar. And also allow users to create their masks according to their unique personalities and discover the rich history of the Peking opera.There are four sections: Discover, Create, Apply, and PekGo. Through the four function the app brings Peking opera to the present by telling the history, creating personalized masks, and giving the opportunity to discover the lesser-known culture of Peking opera performances.
The first function is Discover, People can discover the story of each character, the meaning of a symbol, the performance corresponding to the character, and a shortcut to the upcoming events.
The second function provides two ways to create people’s own masks. I break down users’ characteristics by their personal characters, life contexts, and future development trends. They’re represented by keywords in the Mask Generating process, so as the user chooses their own related keywords, they are used to generate personalized masks. Also, they can design their masks with their visual elements if they rely on visual aesthetics more than verbal descriptions to design the best masks for themselves. After you create your mask, you can share to social media or find nearby people(check other’s mask).
The third function is apply, apply Peking opera to our life. For example, the filter. You can turn on your mobile phone camera anytime, choose a character, and cosplay. It's as if the ancients travelled to the present world.
The last function is Pekgo. You can find nearby Peking Opera activities and book the ticket to go.
