Chinese Craft Stories NATIONAL HERITAGE INVENTORY
Home / Inventory / Ⅳ-91

Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaDingtao, ShandongBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Drawing on local materials, Dingtao shadow puppetry is an ancient shadow play brought to Dingtao by Shanxi migrants in the Ming; it has long been active in Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Hebei and still keeps the basic making craft, performing form, conventions, original scripts and old shadow trunks of the ancient shadow play.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Dingtao shadow puppetry, also called “telling stories through paper”, is an ancient shadow play brought to Dingtao by Shanxi migrants in the Ming, long active in Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Hebei and still keeping the basic making craft, performing form, conventions, original scripts and old shadow trunks of the ancient shadow play. Its surviving old shadow trunk contains more than two hundred and fifty complete sets of figures, fairly complete in kind. These figures are over a foot tall, made of oxhide, archaic in colour, huge in form and rough and plain in style, showing superb carving skill. Its singing fuses many artistic elements—other local opera, quyi and folk ditties—with rich musical imagery and great expressiveness. In performance there are as few as six or seven and as many as ten or twenty people, each with his own charge of singing, accompaniment or figure operation.

Investiture of the Gods

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays; its serial plays can run for more than a month.

Journey to the West

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays.

The Yang Family Generals

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays.

Investiture of the Gods

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays; with Journey to the West and The Yang Family Generals, its serial plays can run for more than a month.

Journey to the West

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays.

The Yang Family Generals

One of the commonly performed Dingtao shadow puppetry plays.

The Ancient Shadow Trunk (More Than 250 Sets of Figures)

Dingtao shadow puppetry's surviving old trunk contains more than two hundred and fifty complete sets of figures over a foot tall made of oxhide, precious material for studying early shadow modelling art.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dingtao shadow puppetry is popular around Dingtao in south-western Shandong and also circulates in the border area of Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Hebei, with the Dingtao county cultural centre responsible for the project's protection and transmission.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry · Shadow Puppetry.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Dingtao shadow puppetry has abundant material and is precious for studying the modelling art of early Chinese shadow puppetry. Its commonly performed items are mainly Investiture of the Gods, Journey to the West and The Yang Family Generals, the serial plays running for more than a month; well preserved and orderly transmitted, it is a precious example for studying early shadow modelling and theatrical form. Relying on the cultural centre, the locality sustains this ancient shadow play through protecting the shadow trunk, recording plays and school activities.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Shadow Puppetry (Dingtao, Shandong) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。