Wang Tianwen

04-1669Shadow PuppetryTraditional OperaWeinan, ShaanxiBatch 4 (2012)

Lineage & School of Heritage

He has devoted more than fifty years to the art of shadow-puppet carving and has trained over a hundred disciples; enthusiasts from the United States, Germany and Japan have also come to study with him, drawn by his reputation.

Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire

Male, Han ethnicity, born in May 1949, a native of Hua County, Shaanxi Province. A shadow-puppet maker of Hua County shadow puppetry and a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. At the age of twelve he began studying the craft of shadow-puppet carving under Li Zhanwen, a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. At fourteen he completed the carving of his first shadow play, San Da Zhujia Zhuang (Three Attacks on the Zhu Family Manor). He enlisted in the army at eighteen, was transferred in 1976 to the Shaanxi Chemical Fertilizer Plant, moved to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Arts and Crafts in 1977, and retired in 2005. His skills in shadow-puppet carving, restoration and authentication are of the highest order. Numerous of his shadow puppets are held by the National Museum of China, the Shanghai Museum, the China Shadow Puppet Museum, the Central Academy of Fine Arts and other institutions. His works were selected for the 56th Venice Biennale. The puppets he carves have fluent and graceful lines, precisely controlled breaks and joints, accurate and vivid forms and rich, colourful pigmentation, and they represent the standard of the eastern Shaanxi (Donglu) school of shadow puppetry.

Honors & Recognition

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

References & Archival Sources

Wang Tianwen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Representative Items of This Bearer

Profile

Representative item: Shadow Puppetry
Item code: Ⅳ-91
Category: Traditional Opera
Region: Weinan, Shaanxi
Born: 1950.05.02
Batch: Batch 4 (2012)

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