Zhao Liya

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhao Liya, Female, Han, from Tangshan, Hebei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Shadow Puppetry (Ⅳ-91). The tradition is documented in Tangshan, Hebei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shadow Puppetry in Tangshan, Hebei: Tangshan shadow puppetry is based on the Leting dialect, is distinguished by its singing, has a style of its own, and belongs to the banqiang (regulated-aria) system. Its character figures are divided into the role types sheng, xiao, da, bin and chou. The content of the repertoire of Tangshan shadow puppetry is important material for analysing in depth the local social customs, folk ways and religious psychology. The exact time of the formation of shadow puppetry has not been conclusively established; but according to the 'Dongjing Menghua Lu' (A Record of Dreams of the Eastern Capital) written by Meng Yuanlao of the Southern Song, it had already matured and flourished by the Song dynasty at the latest, and the shadow-play artists in the washi (entertainment quarters) of Dongjing, Bianliang already included nine men such as Dong Shiwu, Zhao Qi and Cao Baoyi. After development through the four historical periods of the Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming, shadow puppetry, which was current all over the country, showed a flourishing scene in the Qing dynasty. Luanzhou shadow puppetry is generally thought to have been founded in the late Ming dynasty and to have flourished in the late Qing and the early years of the Republic of China; it has a history of more than 400 years to the present.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Zhao Liya is anchored in the documented technical standards of Shadow Puppetry in Tangshan, Hebei. Within the documented technical tradition of Shadow Puppetry in Tangshan, Hebei: Shadow puppetry is a form of Chinese drama in which figures are cut from animal hide or cardboard and stories are performed by projecting light through the cut figures. Its range of diffusion is extremely wide, reaching almost every province and region of the country; and because the vocal styles performed differ from place to place, a great variety of shadow-puppet forms have arisen, such as Huaxian shadow puppetry, Huayin laoqiang shadow puppetry, Agongqiang shadow puppetry and Xianbanqiang shadow puppetry in Shaanxi; Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry in Gansu; Xiaoyi wanwanqiang shadow puppetry in Shanxi; Tangshan shadow puppetry and southern Hebei 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 Jin-dynasty murals of the Wenshu Hall of Yanshan Temple at Fanshi in Shanxi there is a painting called 'Yingxi Tu' (Picture of Shadow Play), which vividly and concretely depicts the actual conditions of a shadow-puppet performance in Shanxi at that time. Although shadow puppetry has many varieties, the differences lie mainly in vocal style and repertoire; the making of the shadow figures and the performing technique differ only in small ways. A shadow figure is generally made by first scraping the hair and blood from cowhide, donkey hide or goatskin and processing it to a semi-translucent state, and then carving and painting it; its carving and painting stress fine knife work and lifelike modelling. A shadow figure is generally divided into several parts, the head, the body and the limbs, and all are in profile; the head carries a helmet or headdress, and the body and limbs are all clothed; after oil colours have been applied it is baked with hot bricks and pressed flat, and the figure is finished. In performance the head of the figure is inserted into the body, the body is joined to the limbs, and at the same time three bamboo rods are fitted to the body and the two hands, so that the figure can be manipulated in the show. Besides the character figures, some stage properties, tables, chairs and scenic pieces are also carved to accompany the performance. The main apparatus is the shadow screen, commonly called the 'liangzi', generally 3 chi high and 5 chi wide, at most 4 chi high and 6 chi wide, with white paper used as the curtain so that a single performer can operate it. Second is a single oil lamp, used to project the shadow figures and their movements. Tangshan shadow puppetry, also called Luanzhou ying, Leting ying or donkey-hide shadow puppetry, is one of the most influential varieties of shadow puppetry in China. The two principal manipulators in a Tangshan shadow-puppet performance are the 'shangxian' and the 'xiaxian'. Three rods govern the movements of the figures; they are called the 'main rod' and the 'hand rods'. A Tangshan shadow-puppet performance is usually divided into five tasks, holding, attaching, striking, pulling and singing, and there is a saying that seven are busy and eight are idle. The scripts of Tangshan shadow puppetry are also called 'yingjuan' (shadow scrolls); at least 500 of them survive. Of these more than 130 are 'liantaiben' (linked multi-scene scripts), and there are many single-act plays as well. Its repertoire works include 'Wufeng Hui' (Meeting of the Five Blades), 'The Second Bloom of the Plum' and 'Qingyun Jian' (The Azure Cloud Sword). The literary structure of traditional shadow-puppet scripts is that a character has an entrance 'poem' and an exit 'couplet'. Its usual metrical patterns are the seven-character line, the crossed ten-character pattern, 'three chasing seven', the five-character fu, the 'hard san', the 'large golden edging' and the 'small golden edging'. These sung-text structures all take the paired upper and lower lines as their basic structural unit; each passage of singing is generally made up of several pairs of upper and lower lines with matching rhymes and tones. The basic metres are the great metre, the second-style metre, the third-style metre and the san metre, together with plain singing, coloured aria, the desolate tune, the sorrowful tune, the wandering-in-the-shade tune, the returning-to-life tune, and various other vocal styles such as 'three chasing seven', named for their special line patterns. The carving of shadow figures goes through several process steps: scraping and softening the hide, tracing the pattern and carving, colouring and oiling, and assembling, nailing and fitting the rods. The knife cuts and the colouring are where the level of the carving artist is most clearly expressed. The successive generations of Tangshan shadow-puppet artists have never ceased to improve and innovate their vocal performance and the materials and techniques of their stage properties; this experience is a precious inheritance for both the present and future generations. The vocal style, music, performance and figure design of Tangshan shadow puppetry have a style peculiar to the region, are praised by colleagues and audiences at home and abroad, and have high value for appreciation and study. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Wufeng Hui (Meeting of the Five Blades)": Its repertoire works include 'Wufeng Hui' (Meeting of the Five Blades), 'The Second Bloom of the Plum' and 'Qingyun Jian' (The Azure Cloud Sword). "The Second Bloom of the Plum": Its repertoire works include 'Wufeng Hui' (Meeting of the Five Blades), 'The Second Bloom of the Plum' and 'Qingyun Jian' (The Azure Cloud Sword). "Qingyun Jian (The Azure Cloud Sword)": Its repertoire works include 'Wufeng Hui' (Meeting of the Five Blades), 'The Second Bloom of the Plum' and 'Qingyun Jian' (The Azure Cloud Sword).

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Zhao Liya was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Shadow Puppetry, with Tangshan, Hebei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Shadow Puppetry in Tangshan, Hebei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Tangshan, Hebei as its declared area, and Tangshan Mass Art Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Zhaoliya (Tangshan, Hebei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhaoliya · China ICH Official Archive