Bian Lian (simplified Chinese: 变脸; traditional Chinese: 變臉; pinyin: Biàn Liǎn; literally "Face-Changing") is an ancient Chinese dramatic art that is part of the more general Sichuan opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and move to quick, dramatic music. They also wear vividly colored masks, which they change within a fraction of a second.
The face changing, or "bian lian" in Chinese, is an important aspect of Chinese Sichuan opera. Performers wave their arms and twist their heads, and their painted masks change repeatedly.
Famed Sichuan Opera performer Wang Daozheng in a 2006 interview said the secret of "bian lian" leaked out during the 1986 visit of a Sichuan Opera troupe to Japan. Wang laments the leak of this Chinese traditional secret performance art and is concerned the foreign performers in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and other countries are not well-trained. Wang argues that "bian lian" is one of the traditional arts protected by PRC secrecy laws but PRC Ministry of Culture officials said that that is not true.