Peking Opera facial make-up is an art of portrayal and exaggeration. The patterns of bat, bird wings and butterfly wings are often used to paint eyebrows and faces of characters, together with exaggerated nasal pits and mouth pits to highlight facial expressions. Colors, such as red, yellow, blue, white, black, golden and silver have their own meanings. Patterns and decorations are specific representation of the inside world and outside appearance of characters. All of these are rich in culture.

Gold and silver colors are usually used for gods and spirits. The main color in a facial makeup symbolizes the disposition of the character. The facial makeups date a long time back to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties at least. Simple patterns of painted faces are found in tomb murals of that age. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), improvements were made in the skills of drawing and in preparing the paints, leading to the whole set of colorful facial patterns that we see in today's Jingju (Beijing Opera).