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Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaXuanwu, BeijingBatch 2 (2008)Extension 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. Beijing shadow puppetry early divided into eastern and western schools, the eastern dying out very early, while the surviving western school formed in the Zhengde reign of the Ming. In 1842 the Manchu Lu Decheng inherited the Beijing western-school shadow art and founded the Beijing Xiangshun shadow troupe. Its main transmitter, the Beijing Shadow Puppet Troupe, after 1979 long had no premises of its own and lacked a fixed performing venue, operating in debt for years with low pay for its staff and extremely difficult survival. Beijing shadow puppetry early divided into eastern and western schools, the eastern dying out very early, while the surviving western school formed in the Zhengde reign of the Ming. In 1842 the Manchu Lu Decheng inherited the Beijing western-school shadow art and founded the Beijing Xiangshun shadow troupe. Its main transmitter, the Beijing Shadow Puppet Troupe, after 1979 long had no premises of its own and lacked a fixed performing venue, operating in debt for years with low pay and extremely difficult survival. From the late Qing Beijing shadow puppetry performed mainly in city theatres and private gatherings, and after the 1950s it once entered theatres and schools, forming an urban performing tradition distinct from rural shadow puppetry.

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. Thereafter the western-school shadow passed down in a single line in the Lu family: Lu Decheng's son Lu Fuyuan founded the Fushun shadow troupe, Lu Fuyuan's son Lu Yaofeng founded the Deshun shadow troupe, and by Lu Yaofeng's son Lu Jingda it was the fourth generation, spanning more than a hundred years. Beijing shadow puppetry had a long formative period and distinctive means of expression, in performance, vocal style and modelling having artistic features unlike shadow puppetry elsewhere. Its vocal style absorbs the tunes of northern Kunqu, Peking opera and quyi, forming a manner of its own; its performance is fine and exaggerated, with some unique artistic devices, such as figures looking in a mirror, shedding tears or making their toilet, all rendered very true to life. With the successive retirement and death of the older generation of artists, Beijing shadow puppetry has come to lack successors. Thereafter the western-school shadow passed down in a single line in the Lu family: Lu Decheng's son Lu Fuyuan founded the Fushun shadow troupe, Lu Fuyuan's son Lu Yaofeng founded the Deshun shadow troupe, and by Lu Yaofeng's son Lu Jingda it was the fourth generation, spanning more than a hundred years. Beijing shadow puppetry had a long formative period and distinctive means of expression, in performance, vocal style and modelling having artistic features unlike shadow puppetry elsewhere. Its vocal style absorbs the tunes of northern Kunqu, Peking opera and quyi, forming a manner of its own; its performance is fine and exaggerated, with some unique artistic devices, such as figures looking in a mirror, shedding tears or making their toilet, all rendered very true to life. With the successive retirement and death of the older generation of artists, Beijing shadow puppetry has come to lack successors. Its figures are carved from oxhide or donkey hide, relatively large and strongly coloured, their facial designs mostly drawn after Peking opera, forming an elegant and splendid court style; they are operated mainly by three bamboo rods with a stress on steadiness, precision and liveliness, and excel at such finely observed everyday actions as looking in a mirror, weeping and making the toilet.

Western-School Shadow Puppetry (Four Generations of the Lu Family)

After Lu Decheng inherited it in 1842, Beijing western-school shadow puppetry passed through Lu Fuyuan and Lu Yaofeng to Lu Jingda, four generations spanning more than a hundred years.

The Xiangshun, Fushun and Deshun Shadow Troupes

The three shadow troupes founded in succession by the Lu family are the principal troupe lineage of Beijing western-school shadow puppetry.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Beijing shadow puppetry is dominated by the western school and has long circulated in Xuanwu district (now Xicheng district) and the urban area of Beijing, its transmitting body the Beijing Shadow Puppet Troupe bearing the task of performance and teaching. Beijing shadow puppetry is dominated by the western school and has long circulated in Xuanwu district (now Xicheng district) and the urban area of Beijing; its transmitting body, the Beijing Shadow Puppet Troupe, bears the task of performance and teaching.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In these circumstances Beijing shadow puppetry has gradually fallen into an endangered state, lacking transmitters and slowly fading from audiences' view, urgently requiring the authorities to draw up measures for its protection. In these circumstances Beijing shadow puppetry has gradually fallen into an endangered state, lacking transmitters and slowly fading from audiences' view, urgently requiring the authorities to draw up measures for its protection. It was once active in capital theatres in the 1950s, and in recent years has maintained transmission mainly through the Beijing Shadow Puppet Troupe's performances and teaching in communities and schools; support in premises, funding and talent training is urgently needed.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Shadow Puppetry (Xuanwu, Beijing) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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