As mentioned earlier, specific types of facial make-up in Beijing Opera are put on the actors' faces to symbolize the personalities, characteristics, and fates of the roles.

Usually, red faces have positive meanings, symbolizing brave, faithful, and wise men. Another positive color is purple, which signifies wisdom and bravery.

Black faces, for their part, usually have neutral meanings, symbolizing just brave men; however, they can also represent uprightness.

Blue and green faces also have neutral meanings that symbolize the hero of the bush, with the former also hinting at strength and intrepidity.

Meanwhile, yellow and white faces have negative meanings that symbolize ferocious, treacherous, and crafty men.

Finally, gold and silver faces symbolize mysteriousness, and stand for monsters or gods.

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