Wu Xing

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Fond of the arts from childhood, he studied at the Xixian Jin Opera Troupe and the Lishi Jin Opera Troupe, specialising in the bearded sheng role. Within the regional tradition and school record of Puppetry in Xiaoyi, Shanxi: Xiaoyi puppetry is one of Shanxi's local genres and circulates in Xiaoyi city and the surrounding counties. Xiaoyi puppetry belongs to rod puppetry and came to the Xiaoyi area in the Song. Drawing on the Xiaoyi county gazette and research on Shanxi puppet and shadow art, by the Ming and Qing Xiaoyi's puppet troupes were already fairly active, and in the late Qing and early Republic they merged with local shadow puppetry to form the “lantern-shadow troupe” performing tradition, producing family-based manipulative and carving lineages lasting several generations.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in April 1951, a native of Xiaoyi County, Shanxi Province. In 1972 he was admitted to the Xiaoyi County Puppet Troupe, studying puppet and shadow art under famous artists including Liang Quanmin and Na Pengfei. He has a formidable lifting technique and excels in manipulating the hualian (painted-face), sanhualian (clown) and wusheng roles; building on the traditional rod technique he added stage conventions of posture and gait for the figures, and developed special skills such as the whisking tassel, the moving beard, the quivering hat wings, fire-spitting and face-changing. Since the 1990s he has used new media to film puppet film and television series, producing more than two hundred episodes to date, with representative works including Ke La Chuan Qi (The Legend of Ke La) and Ying Xiong Chu Shao Nian (Heroes in Youth). Within the documented technical tradition of Puppetry in Xiaoyi, Shanxi: Xiaoyi puppet heads are carved from wood, the frame built of bamboo and wood dressed in costume, the operating rods fixed to the figure's back and two arms, stressing lifting skill, twisting skill and stepwork, aiming at unity of form and spirit and ingenious mechanism. Its puppet modelling is simple and bold, its expression nimble and lively, its mechanisms ingenious and practical, with a strong northern character. Its troupes perform in varied forms, known for “two forms, three vocal styles”: the “two forms” are puppets and shadow puppets—Xiaoyi puppetry was originally an independent troupe, later combining with shadow puppetry as the “lantern-shadow troupe”, performing puppets by day and shadow puppets by night; the “three vocal styles” are pi qiang, wanwan qiang and the middle-road bangzi. Xiaoyi puppetry first sang in Xiaoyi yangge ganban qiang, pi qiang and middle-road bangzi (Jin opera), and later added wanwan qiang. Besides traditional operatic items it also stages modern plays and newly created mythological plays, and since the 1990s has extended its reach through puppet-themed film and television works. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Legend of Kela": One of the representative puppet film and television serials made by an inheritor with new media since the 1990s. "Heroes Come from the Young": One of the representative puppet film and television works by an inheritor, of more than two hundred episodes in all. "The Lantern-Shadow Troupe (Puppets by Day, Shadow by Night)": The performance form after Xiaoyi puppetry and Xiaoyi shadow puppetry combined, staging puppets by day and shadow puppets by night. "Hair-Tossing, Beard, Hat-Wing, Fire-Blowing and Face-Changing Feats": Feats developed on the basis of traditional rod technique by adding figure poses and step conventions.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Puppetry (Xiaoyi Puppetry), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has taught at the Lüliang Art School and the Xiaoyi Art School, instructing professional puppet talent; most of his disciples are now the backbone of the troupe, and since retirement he has continued to contribute to the traditional art through a puppet transmission workshop.

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. Wu Xing · National Representative Bearer Archive