In Peking Opera, the whip is often used to represent horse or horse-riding. If the character dances with whip in hand, it means that he or she is riding on a horse; if the character merely walks with a whip in hand, it means that the character is on foot leading a horse.

There are two types of whip in general, the “golden handle with five tassels” and the “brown handle with three tassels”.  The scribes and mature male characters (“laosheng”) use a whip with a hard handle and three tassels, both male and female action characters (“wusheng” and “wudan”) mostly use a soft-handle whip that has five tassels.  The color of the tassels represent the color of the horse, valuable rides are adorned with pom-poms attached to the handle, like the “Red Hare”, the legendary steed rode by Guan Yu in “Guowuguan” (Five Passes) is represented by a golden-handled whip with three purple tassels and red silk pom-poms.  

Actors performing actions like “mount” and “dismount” from a horse using the whip, there are a series of choreographed movements and gestures for different type characters, some reflect the mood of the rider, others reflect the rider´s identity, personality and the purpose of riding.  The movements, while mimicking real actions, are highly stylized, creating realistic yet artful performances.