Lin Youdun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Lin Youdun, Male, Han, from Wenchang, Hainan, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Puppetry (Ⅳ-92). The tradition is documented in Wenchang, Hainan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Puppetry in Wenchang, Hainan: Wenchang gongzai xi centres on Wenchang city, Hainan, and circulates in the Wenchang-dialect area of northern Hainan; because its performances are mostly attached to temple fairs, junpo festivals and New Year festivals, the troupes move between villages and market towns, transmitted through family troupes and master-disciple teaching. Drawing on surveys of Hainan opera, hand-held wooden puppet troupes popularly called “gongzai xi” already appeared in Hainan in the Yuan, and flourished in the Ming and Qing as the operatic vocal styles brought by Minnan and Chaoshan migrants came in; because Wenchang had developed education and many temple fairs and junpo festivals, it became one of the areas where Hainan gongzai xi is most concentrated, transmitted to the present for four or five hundred years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Lin Youdun is anchored in the documented technical standards of Puppetry in Wenchang, Hainan. Within the documented technical tradition of Puppetry in Wenchang, Hainan: The puppet (gongzai) has a head about forty centimetres long carved from wood, the upper body's shoulders woven of rattan and bamboo, the two hands carved in wood, the lower body covered by a robe skirt with boots or shoes for feet; for ease of manipulation a wooden stick or rattan is inserted into the body. The performing stage is about one zhang wide, screened with cloth, the performer singing behind the curtain while manipulating the puppet in front of it. The figures include sheng, dan, jing, mo and chou and more than twenty images such as the Buddha, Nüwa, the Dragon King of the Sea, the Holy Mother, the Thunder God, the Thunder Goddess, the tiger and fairies; their performance has more than ten conventions—hand gestures, bowing with clasped hands, stamping, sleeve-brushing, kneeling astride, rolling, eye-rolling, mouth-opening and grasping with both hands—used flexibly according to the plot. The singing comes from sister genres and local Hainan folk tunes, commonly using more than thirty tunes such as zhongban, gaoqiang, chengtu and xiaoqu, and the repertory has more than five hundred plays such as The Battle of Wucheng and Luobo Picks the Scriptures. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Battle of Wucheng": One of the more than five hundred plays of Hainan gongzai xi, whose singing draws on sister genres and Hainan folk melodies. "Luobo Picks the Scriptures": One of the more than five hundred plays of Hainan gongzai xi, a Buddhist-themed story akin to the Mulian tradition.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Lin Youdun was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Puppetry, with Wenchang, Hainan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Puppetry in Wenchang, Hainan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Wenchang, Hainan as its declared area, and Wenchang Cultural 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. Linyoudun (Wenchang, Hainan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Linyoudun · China ICH Official Archive