Zhang Kunrong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1958 he entered the Zhejiang Provincial Puppet and Shadow Art Troupe, studying under Wei Bairong, head of the Azhou troupe. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shadow Puppetry in Haining, Zhejiang: At the same time its lyrics and recitation were changed to the Haining dialect, making it a regularly performed item on occasions of folk marriage, birthday celebration and prayer to the gods. The time of shadow puppetry's formation is not yet determined, but according to Meng Yuanlao's Dongjing Menghua Lu of the Southern Song it had matured and flourished by the Song at the latest, and among the shadow artists of the Bianliang pleasure quarters there were already nine men such as Dong Shiwu, Zhao Qi and Cao Baoyi. Through the Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties shadow puppetry, spread across the whole country, presented a flourishing scene in the Qing. In Haining city, Zhejiang, on the north bank of the Qiantang river, there still circulates the classical genre with Southern Song style—Haining shadow puppetry. It has been performed for nearly a thousand years; by the 1930s and 1940s Haining still had more than twenty troupes, more than three hundred plays and more than one hundred and twenty actors. In the 1950s, when the Zhejiang cultural authorities were forming a troupe to perform in Beijing, a survey found that throughout the province only Haining still had skilful old shadow artists.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1940, a native of Haining County, Zhejiang Province. In 1960 he became a principal manipulator of the troupe, and after 1963 he carried the troupe's performances as its leading figure. Through years of practice, exploration and study he gained a thorough grasp of the essentials of shadow-puppet performance. After the troupe was disbanded in 1969 he was sent to do farm labour in the countryside. From 2004 he rehearsed and starred in Ji Dou (The Cockfight), Gui yu He (The Turtle and the Crane), Nao Longgong (Havoc in the Dragon Palace) and other pieces for the Haining Shadow Puppet Art Troupe. At the shadow-puppetry teaching base of Xiejiao Central Primary School he carried out extensive teaching, and in recent years he has taken Zhao Li, Guo Zhiying and others as disciples. Within the documented technical tradition of Shadow Puppetry in Haining, Zhejiang: Shadow puppetry is an operatic form that cuts figures from hide or cardboard and tells stories by projecting the cut figures in lamplight. Its distribution is extremely wide, covering almost every province and region, and different local vocal styles have produced a great variety of shadow puppetry—Huaxian, Huayin laoqiang, Agong qiang and Xianban qiang shadow puppetry in Shaanxi; Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry in Gansu; Xiaoyi wanwan qiang shadow puppetry in Shanxi; Tangshan and Jinan shadow puppetry in Hebei; Haining shadow puppetry in Zhejiang; Jianghan plain shadow puppetry in Hubei; Lufeng shadow puppetry in Guangdong; and Fuzhou and Lingyuan shadow puppetry in Liaoning. In the Wenshu hall of Yanshan temple, Fanshi, Shanxi, a Jin-dynasty mural “Picture of Shadow Play” vividly shows shadow performance in Shanxi at the time. Though there are many kinds, they differ mainly in vocal style and repertory, while figure-making and performance technique are broadly similar. Figures are generally made by scraping the hair and blood from oxhide, donkey hide or sheepskin, processing it to semi-transparency and then carving and colouring it, stressing fine knife-work and lifelike modelling. A figure is divided into head, body and four limbs, all in profile, the head with helmet or cap, the body and limbs dressed, baked and pressed flat over a firebrick after oil colouring. In performance the head is inserted into the body, the body joined to the limbs, and three bamboo rods fixed to the body and two hands for operation. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Opening Pieces (Excerpt Martial Plays) and Main Plays": Haining shadow puppetry performance divides into “opening pieces” and main plays, the inheritor Xu Ernan being skilled in various openings. "Tiaotou (A Rod-Operation Showpiece)": One of Haining shadow puppetry's rod-operation techniques, the most brilliant in Xu Ernan's hands, with clean movements and brisk rhythm in combat scenes. "Haining Shadow Figure Modelling (Southern Song Style)": Haining shadow figures are made according to the genre's own modelling features and colour requirements; the inheritor Wang Qiansong made more than a thousand figures for troupes in many places.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Shadow Puppetry (Haining Shadow Puppetry), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Zhang Kunrong · National Representative Bearer Archive