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Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaHuan, GansuBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

The time of shadow puppetry's formation is not yet determined, but according to Meng Yuanlao's Dongjing Menghua Lu of the Southern Song it had matured and flourished by the Song at the latest, and among the shadow artists of the Bianliang pleasure quarters there were already nine men such as Dong Shiwu, Zhao Qi and Cao Baoyi. Through the Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties shadow puppetry, spread across the whole country, presented a flourishing scene in the Qing. Through the reform and innovation of a generation including the late-Qing “master of daoqing shadow puppetry” Xie Changchun it was made more complete. In the 1950s Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry performed in Beijing three times, winning high praise from Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other leaders, and eventually developing into Gansu's only local genre, Longju.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Shadow puppetry is an operatic form that cuts figures from hide or cardboard and tells stories by projecting the cut figures in lamplight. Its distribution is extremely wide, covering almost every province and region, and different local vocal styles have produced a great variety of shadow puppetry—Huaxian, Huayin laoqiang, Agong qiang and Xianban qiang shadow puppetry in Shaanxi; Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry in Gansu; Xiaoyi wanwan qiang shadow puppetry in Shanxi; Tangshan and Jinan 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 Wenshu hall of Yanshan temple, Fanshi, Shanxi, a Jin-dynasty mural “Picture of Shadow Play” vividly shows shadow performance in Shanxi at the time. Though there are many kinds, they differ mainly in vocal style and repertory, while figure-making and performance technique are broadly similar. Figures are generally made by scraping the hair and blood from oxhide, donkey hide or sheepskin, processing it to semi-transparency and then carving and colouring it, stressing fine knife-work and lifelike modelling. A figure is divided into head, body and four limbs, all in profile, the head with helmet or cap, the body and limbs dressed, baked and pressed flat over a firebrick after oil colouring. In performance the head is inserted into the body, the body joined to the limbs, and three bamboo rods fixed to the body and two hands for operation. Besides the characters, stage props, tables and chairs and scenery must be carved. The main prop is the screen, popularly “liangzi”, generally three feet high and five wide, at most four by six, with white paper as the backdrop for single-person operation, and next an oil lamp to project the figures and their movements. Huanxian belongs to Qingyang city, Gansu, lying at the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, with an area of 9,236 square kilometres, twenty townships and a population of 340,000. It was once a place of contact among the Xiongnu, Qiang, Rong and Di peoples and of the collision and fusion of the ancient Qin-Long culture with multi-ethnic cultures; its special geographical position and deep cultural deposits gave birth to the ethnic folk art “Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry”. Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry is the product of combining “daoqing” with shadow puppetry and has a thousand years of history; through the vicissitudes it has formed Huanxian's distinctive daoqing shadow opera. Its value lies mainly in its beautiful and distinctive daoqing singing and its superb shadow making and performance. When a troupe performs, one man at the front operates the rods and carries the seated singing and recitation of all the roles, while four or five at the back accompany him and “ma huang”, one leading and the rest joining in, rough and high-pitched, a style of its own. The daoqing music is in the zhi mode, divided into “sad sound” and “flower sound”, sung at two speeds, tanban and feiban, with both the qupai and the banqiang forms present. Among its instruments the sixian, yugu drum, shuai bangzi and jianban clappers are all home-made, with distinctive timbre. Among the more than one hundred and eighty transmitted plays, such ancient cultural symbols as “tu” and “juan” are still preserved. A survey shows forty-seven troupes, 285 artists and more than forty shadow carvers in the county.

The Traditional Repertory of Huanxian Daoqing Shadow Puppetry (More Than 180 Plays)

Among the more than one hundred and eighty transmitted plays, such ancient cultural symbols as “tu” and “juan” are still preserved.

Daoqing Music Qupai (Sad Sound and Flower Sound)

The daoqing music is in the zhi mode, divided into “sad sound” and “flower sound”, sung at tanban and feiban speeds, with both qupai and banqiang forms present; the sixian, yugu drum, shuai bangzi and jianban are all home-made.

Longju (Developed from Huanxian Daoqing Shadow Puppetry)

In the 1950s Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry performed in Beijing three times and eventually developed into Gansu's only local genre, Longju.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

It is inseparably blended with the local people's customs and beliefs, forming its present distribution centred on Huanxian and reaching Huachi, Qingcheng and the neighbouring Yanchi in Ningxia and Dingbian in Shaanxi.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The several thousand original Qing-dynasty shadow figures held in collections and surviving among the people are ingeniously conceived and finely and lifelike carved, with extremely high artistic and research value. Shi Chenglin (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1947 in Huanxian, Gansu. Over more than forty years in the art his skill has grown ever more mature, and he excels in front-of-stage performance, singing thirty plays from memory and ten from the script; building on the “Shi school” craft he has made bold innovations, and he is one of the most versatile daoqing shadow artists in Huanxian today, being awarded the title “Gansu daoqing shadow-puppetry artist” by the Gansu Folk Artists Association in 2002. He is a representative inheritor of shadow puppetry (Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry) in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. Gao Qingwang (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1963 in Huanxian, Gansu. Noted for carving shadow figures, his troupe has a complete set of figures, and he has mastered fifty plays performed from the script and ten from memory. His singing is full and well-formed, his voice resonant and his rod work steady; he is an outstanding representative of the “Wei school” and one of the best-known carving artists in Huanxian, and a representative inheritor of shadow puppetry (Huanxian daoqing shadow puppetry) in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Shadow Puppetry (Huan, Gansu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Shi Chenglin · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Gao Qingwang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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