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Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaWangkui, HeilongjiangBatch 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. Wangkui in Heilongjiang was under the jurisdiction of Hailun prefecture from the Qing, gathering many central-plains migrants, especially from Hebei, so that Jidong colloquial speech was very widespread locally. At the end of the eighteenth century shadow artists from Laoting, Hebei, settled in Wangkui to sing, and from then on shadow puppetry continued and developed there. In the 1950s Wangkui shadow puppetry was once in vogue, raising the banner of the “Jiangbei school” of Heilongjiang shadow puppetry, and by the 1970s it had become the principal art form performed in the towns and villages of Wangkui.

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. Wangkui shadow puppetry keeps the features of Jidong folk ditties and on that basis absorbs a great deal of the outer tunes and miscellaneous qupai of Shuangcheng shadow puppetry, the two fusing to form its own style, hence the name “two-waters” shadow singing. Its traditional scripts take as their subjects chiefly legal cases, swordsmen, warfare, the court, market-town customs and romance, the commonly performed items including Wu Feng Hui, Shuang Shi Hun, Yue Fei Zhuan and Bao Gong An. It has a distinctive artistic value: while developing itself it has greatly influenced other sister arts in the region—Heilongjiang's folk paper-cutting, stone and wood carving, Peking opera, Pingju, Longjiang opera, folk dance and errenzhuan have all drawn heavily on its making craft, music, singing and performance. Wangkui shadow puppetry keeps the features of Jidong folk ditties and on that basis absorbs a great deal of the outer tunes and miscellaneous qupai of Shuangcheng shadow puppetry, the two fusing to form its own style, hence the name “two-waters” shadow singing. Its traditional scripts take as their subjects chiefly legal cases, swordsmen, warfare, the court, market-town customs and romance, the commonly performed items including Wu Feng Hui, Shuang Shi Hun, Yue Fei Zhuan and Bao Gong An. It has a distinctive artistic value: while developing itself it has greatly influenced other sister arts in the region—Heilongjiang's folk paper-cutting, stone and wood carving, Peking opera, Pingju, Longjiang opera, folk dance and errenzhuan have all drawn heavily on its making craft, music, singing and performance. Its scripts take legal cases, swordsmen, warfare, the court, market-town customs and romance as their subjects; its figures are carved from donkey hide, one man at the front operating and singing while four or five behind divide the civil and martial accompaniment; its singing builds on Jidong ditties while absorbing the outer tunes and miscellaneous qupai of Shuangcheng shadow puppetry.

Wu Feng Hui (The Five-Peak Assembly)

A commonly performed item of Wangkui shadow puppetry, whose scripts take legal cases, swordsmen, warfare, the court and romance as their subjects.

Shuang Shi Hun (Two Lost Marriages)

A commonly performed item of Wangkui shadow puppetry.

Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei)

A commonly performed item of Wangkui shadow puppetry.

Bao Gong An (Cases of Judge Bao)

A commonly performed item of Wangkui shadow puppetry.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Wangkui county shadow puppetry circulates around Wangkui county, Heilongjiang, and belongs to the “Jiangbei school” of Heilongjiang shadow puppetry; because Wangkui was under Hailun prefecture in the Qing with many Hebei migrants, the genre keeps the features of Jidong folk ditties while absorbing the outer tunes and miscellaneous qupai of Shuangcheng shadow puppetry, forming the “two-waters” shadow singing, with the Wangkui county cultural centre responsible for the project's protection. Wangkui county shadow puppetry circulates around Wangkui county, Heilongjiang, and belongs to the “Jiangbei school” of Heilongjiang shadow puppetry, with the Wangkui county cultural centre responsible for the project's protection and transmission.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Gu Baozhen (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Manchu, born in April 1952 in Wangkui county, Heilongjiang. She has mastered the shadow singing of more than twenty full-length works including Wu Feng Hui, Zhen Yuan Ta and Shuang Shi Hun. In 1972 she was selected into the Wangkui county shadow team as a formal actor and in 1979 became its first woman head. While organising performances she studied shadow craft, earning the praise of shadow enthusiasts and the name “Jiangbei-school two-waters shadow singing”. For many years she has worked at transmitting and developing the art, innovating and performing many fine works and winning many honours. She is a representative inheritor of shadow puppetry (Wangkui county shadow puppetry) in the third 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 (Wangkui, Heilongjiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Gu Baozhen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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