Noodle restaurant switch helps artists save face

Sichuan Opera performer Yao Yao works on a mask in preparation for his team's performances. CHEN XINBO/XINHUA

KUNMING－Yao Yao and his team members were dressed in traditional Sichuan Opera costumes in a hotpot restaurant around 6 pm on May 21, ready to thrill diners with their first face-changing show since the outbreak of COVID-19.

They arrived three hours earlier to allow for adequate preparations, as the moment they had been waiting for over the past four months finally came.

Yao, who has mastered face-changing techniques whereby actors rapidly alter their makeup to stunning dramatic effect, recalls that they finished their last performance on Jan 21. He was busy preparing for all the costumes and props to be used for shows after the Spring Festival holiday, but the outbreak disrupted all his plans.

"We were supposed to put on 36 performances during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday season, but I kept receiving calls to inform me of cancellations," says Yao, a native of Southwest China's Yunnan province.

For nearly two months, the teammates all stayed at home to avoid the coronavirus and waited for work. In late March, when the disease began to wane in China, Yunnan introduced a series of policies offering support to lodging and catering companies as they resumed work.

Yao also started his new career, opening a restaurant in Kunming, the provincial capital, to make ends meet.

"We didn't have any income from performing for months, and I had to find ways to make money since the team was assembled and managed by me," says Yao.

The name of the restaurant is Mian, which in Chinese means "noodles" or "face", reflecting his two roles－a face-changing performer and the owner of a noodle restaurant.