Sichuan Opera (川劇)

The Sichuan style, also known as Chuānjù, is a humorous and entertaining form of the Chinese opera that not only involves singing and dancing, but puppetry, folk music, fire breathing, and face-changing.
Originating in the Sichuan province in the mid 1600’s, the Sichuan Opera became its own unique style because of its blending of stories from immigrants with the local customs, folk music and dances.
The greatest feature of the Sichuan style is its face-changing tricks known as bianlian. There are three different methods to a characters face-change: “wiping” - where the actor removes all or part of a painted face, “blowing” where the actor blows a colored powder onto his face, and most impressively “pulling” - which uses lightweight fabric as masks that the actor can quickly whip off his face to reveal another mask underneath. 
The stories featured in the Sichuan Opera are classic Chinese stories or legends and most plays can be understood by non-native speakers because of their strong combination of visuals and music.