Gu Baozhen

03-1080Shadow PuppetryTraditional OperaWangkui, HeilongjiangBatch 3 (2009)

Lineage & School of Heritage

Because her family was poor in her early years, at the age of nineteen she was apprenticed to the celebrated veteran shadow-puppet artists Zhang Xuewen and Guan Xingjiu to study shadow puppetry.

Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire

Female, Manchu ethnicity, born in April 1952, a native of Wangkui County, Heilongjiang Province. She mastered the singing techniques of more than twenty full-length shadow-puppet repertoire pieces, including Wu Feng Hui (The Meeting of the Five Peaks), Zhen Yuan Ta (The Tower That Quells Injustice) and Shuang Shi Hun (A Double Lost Marriage). In 1972 she was selected for the Wangkui County Shadow Puppet Troupe and became a full member. In 1979 she became the first female head of the Wangkui County Shadow Puppet Troupe. While organising performances she also studied shadow-puppet technique, winning wide acclaim from enthusiasts of the art and earning the name “Jiangbei-school Liangheshui shadow singing”. For many years she has devoted herself to transmitting and developing the art of shadow puppetry, creating and performing a large number of outstanding works and receiving numerous honours.

Honors & Recognition

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

References & Archival Sources

Gu Baozhen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Representative Items of This Bearer

Profile

Representative item: Shadow Puppetry
Item code: Ⅳ-91
Category: Traditional Opera
Region: Wangkui, Heilongjiang
Born: 1950.12
Batch: Batch 3 (2009)

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