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Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaLuoshan, HenanBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Luoshan shadow puppetry in Henan gradually evolved from the ancient central-plains shadow play; in the late Qing Luoshan artists absorbed the artistic experience of Luanzhou shadow puppetry, bringing it further development. Drawing on research into Luoshan shadow puppetry, the county lies in southern Henan adjoining Hubei and Anhui, and in long touring performance its shadow puppetry absorbed the folk music of Chu and the modelling experience of Jianghuai shadow puppetry, flourishing between the late Qing and early Republic.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Luoshan shadow figures are made with carefully chosen materials and carved precisely and finely, the characters and the pavilions and terraces having a Jianghuai style. Its singing contains elements of the folk music of the Jianghuai region, moving freely between true and falsetto voice in performance and presenting a high, bright and plaintively pleasing artistic style. Its lyrics are humorous and catchy, embodying the character of Jianghuai folk oral literature. The plays handed down through the generations number four hundred and sixteen, of which two hundred and thirty-one are commonly performed, mostly drawn from classic works of literature. Its figures are carved from donkey hide, the heads, bodies and props kept in separate trunks; in performance one man at the front operates the figures and sings while three or five behind divide the civil and martial accompaniment, singing and recitation in the southern Henan dialect, troupes mostly based on families and transmitted from master to disciple.

Traditional Repertory (416 Plays, 231 Commonly Performed)

The plays handed down through the generations number four hundred and sixteen, of which two hundred and thirty-one are commonly performed, mostly drawn from classic works of literature.

Jianghuai-Style Figures and Pavilion Modelling

Luoshan shadow figures are made with carefully chosen materials and carved precisely and finely, the characters and the pavilions and terraces having a Jianghuai style.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Luoshan shadow puppetry is much favoured by audiences of the Jianghuai region and is often performed in Hubei, Anhui and Henan, its range very wide.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present Luoshan shadow puppetry lacks successors and is on the verge of dying out, urgently needing rescue and protection. Chen Guanghui (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in October 1946 in Luoshan county, Henan. In 1962 he took the old Luoshan shadow artist Lin Zhimei as his master to learn shadow performance while also studying southern Henan dagu. Combining playwriting, singing, operation and percussion in one person, he blended Luoshan folk song, mountain song, ditties, dideng xi and dagushu into shadow puppetry, enriching and developing its ban patterns and strengthening its local character. Since 1984 he has attended to transmitting the craft, training more than twenty artists including Chen Yuhua, the first woman performer of Luoshan shadow puppetry. He is a representative inheritor of shadow puppetry (Luoshan shadow puppetry) in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. In recent years Luoshan county has sustained the genre by setting up shadow transmission centres, running intangible-heritage-in-schools and collating and publishing traditional scripts, and its figure-making and vocal material has been fairly well preserved through research and collation.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Shadow Puppetry (Luoshan, Henan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Chen Guanghui · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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