Abstract:  Chinese opera (xiqu) film is a film art which adopts an opera-like narrative of images and actions. Camera editing of stage performances, close-up shots of singing, acting, recitation and acrobatics and spectacular visual effects of camera lenson stunt performances are  three special rhetorical devices in the narrative of Chinese opera films. Firstly, camera editing, mainly including connecting lens of different stages, putting together and editing lens of conflicting opera actions and shifting lens of virtual opera time and space, constitutes the fundamental means of making a Chinese opera film and endows it with dual narrative significance of film and Chinese drama. Secondly, close-up shots of singing, acting, recitation and acrobatics strengthen the effect of the procedural performance of Chinese opera by magnifying its fine details, clarifying its referents and in terms of its function, charisma and imagination adding a new dimension of “drama elements” to Chinese opera film. Thirdly, spectacular visual effects of camera lens demonstrate the enormous importance of technologies in the evolution of Chinese drama film as a new film genre, ranging from astonishing “stunts” unique in Chinese drama performance, to “illusory” spectacles of scenes and to the virtual “bullets” flying.  The “fusion” of the narrative rhetoric of Chinese opera art and that of film lens produces a larger effect than the combined effect of the two, and still more importantly, results in the most effective and aesthetically significant narrative rhetoric of Chinese opera film. Historical experience shows that the fusion of Chinese opera and film is not only an integration of two different art forms, but also a channel of art adaptation to the society and a way of survival. In this sense, Chinese opera film is the outcome of the self-revolution of arts as well as the adaptation of arts to social changes. How to effectively “apply” the narrative rhetoric of film to the narrative of Chinese operas with ethnic characteristics, and how to creatively give full play to the film narrative which is typical of modern industries while adhering to the opera narrative rhetoric,  is a pathway that Chinese opera film has to follow.

Key words: Key words： Chinese opera film, narrative rhetoric, dimension of drama elements, adaptation and survival of art forms