Yan Sarong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Yan Sarong, Female, Unspecified, from Jinjiang, Fujian, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Puppetry (Ⅳ-92). The tradition is documented in Jinjiang, Fujian. Within the regional tradition and school record of Puppetry in Jinjiang, Fujian: The southern school of bag puppetry is all-embracing, drawing widely on the strong points of others, and its regional cultural characteristics are marked. Chinese puppetry arose in the Han dynasty; by the Tang it had made new progress and could perform song-and-dance drama with puppets. With social and economic development, by the Ming puppetry was already popular across the country, flourishing especially in the economically developed southern provinces, hence the saying “the south is good at puppetry”. After the Qing it entered its heyday, not only spreading widely but with ever more vocal styles, producing such branches as Liaoxi puppetry, Zhangzhou bag puppetry, Quanzhou marionette puppetry, Jinjiang bag puppetry, Shaoyang bag puppetry, Gaozhou puppetry, Chaozhou iron-rod puppetry, northern Sichuan grandes marionnettes, Shiqian puppetry, Yang marionette puppetry, Taishun fireworks puppetry and Lin'gao human-puppet opera. In July 1951, Minnan bag puppetry was formally given the name zhangzhong (palm) puppetry; it is a rare genre among Chinese puppetry. The southern school of bag puppetry is popular in the Minnan (southern Fujian) region; its origins can be traced to the historical records in the Jin-dynasty Shiyi Ji (Record of Gleanings), the Five Dynasties work Huashu (Book of Transformations) and the Southern Song piece “Simo Yuanri”. From the mid-Ming to the late Qing was the period in which the southern school of bag puppetry rose and developed; folk legend and the Taiwan Tongzhi (General Gazetteer of Taiwan) hold that bag puppetry arose in the Jiajing reign of the Ming, its founder being Liang Binglin, later acclaimed the “Champion of Drama” (xi zhuangyuan). In the late Qing and early Republic, famous bag puppetry troupes rose one after another in the counties under Quanzhou, such as the Minnan “Five Tigers Troupe” of the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing. During the Republican period, bag puppetry troupes were to be found almost everywhere in Anxi, Hui'an and other counties. In the 1950s, Jinjiang and other counties organised the excavation and recording of more than two hundred bag puppetry plays and musical tune patterns (qupai).

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1949, a native of Jinjiang County, Fujian Province. In 1960 she became a disciple of Li Rongzong and Li Bofen, heads of the southern-school glove puppet tradition, learning the skills of the sheng, dan, chou, bei and za role types, and later specialising in the sheng and dan roles, above all the dan (female) role. Her stage movements are finely detailed, and her declamation and singing are elegant and pleasing to the ear. She is committed to transmitting and safeguarding puppet art, passing performance skills to new trainees, rescuing and collating many traditional excerpt plays, and performing abroad many times in cultural exchange to spread the art of the hand puppet. Within the documented technical tradition of Puppetry in Jinjiang, Fujian: Puppetry was anciently called “kuilei opera” and “kuileizi” and is an operatic form in which artists manipulate puppets to tell stories. The Song was an important period in its development, its puppet-making craft and manipulation technique maturing further. In terms of performance form it may be summarised as five kinds: marionette (string), rod, bag, iron-rod and fireworks puppetry. Puppet art is exquisite and breathtaking. Besides the artists' fine performance, the perfect modelling art of the puppets and the operating equipment are also an important attraction for audiences. The modelling art lies in the carving and design of the puppets: generally marionettes are taller, mostly about 2.2 chi. Strings are attached to the key parts, at most more than thirty and at least a dozen, extra auxiliary strings being added as needed for special feats. The level of the puppets' dance poses and martial feats depends entirely on the artist's operating skill, which is the key to the standard of marionette performance. Rod puppets are taller than marionettes, generally about 3 chi tall, fitted with three operating rods, two working the hands and one controlling the head and body. Bag puppets are the smallest, only about seven inches, held up by the artist's two hands, their manipulation special and unlike marionettes and rod puppets. After the founding of the People's Republic of China puppetry performance became ever richer. Besides traditional operatic items it stages spoken drama, song-and-dance drama, serial plays and even advertisements. At the same time puppetry also faces fierce competition from other art forms. Jinjiang bag puppetry is the southern school of bag puppetry, referring to the zhangzhong (palm) puppetry of the Quanzhou area; it is sung in the Quanzhou mode (quanqiang), distinct from the northern-school Zhangzhou bag puppetry, which sings the northern mode (beidiao). In the mid-Qing, bag puppetry performance flourished in Jinjiang and elsewhere and spread to Taiwan, and famous artists such as Li Kecha appeared at the same time. But on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, because of the economic recession, the bag puppetry troupes of the counties under Quanzhou were in dire straits. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the southern school of bag puppetry gained a new life. In the new period, the southern school of bag puppetry has developed further, its principal carrier being the Jinjiang City Zhangzhong Puppet Theatre. In the more than fifty years since the troupe was founded, it has performed in Beijing many times. It has taken part in theatrical competitions and international puppet festivals, winning awards at the provincial and national levels. The plays The White Dragon Princess and Wuli Changhong (The Five-Mile Rainbow) received commendation from the Ministry of Culture and the ninth Wenhua Award. Its artistic style is distinctive, the division of role types is meticulous, the puppet heads are carved with both form and spirit, the performance is refined and the movements vivid, and it is deeply loved by audiences. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Bailong Gongzhu (The White Dragon Princess)": The plays Bailong Gongzhu (The White Dragon Princess) and Wuli Changhong (The Five-Mile Rainbow) received commendation from the Ministry of Culture and the ninth Wenhua Award. "Wuli Changhong (The Five-Mile Rainbow)": The plays Bailong Gongzhu (The White Dragon Princess) and Wuli Changhong (The Five-Mile Rainbow) received commendation from the Ministry of Culture and the ninth Wenhua Award.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Puppetry (Jinjiang Glove Puppetry), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She has received the Ministry of Culture's Golden Lion Award for Outstanding Actor, the Silver Award of the Fujian Provincial Young and Middle-aged Actors Competition, and the Outstanding Actor Award of the Twenty-second Fujian Provincial Drama Festival.

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. Yan Sarong · National Representative Bearer Archive