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Shadow Puppetry

Ⅳ-91Traditional OperaXingtaishishahe, HebeiBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

With the rapid development of the fur trade at the southern gate of Shunde prefecture in the Ming, merchants from Shanxi, Henan and Shangdang opened shops at XingTai's southern gate and Jinci road and watched opera in guild halls, and Shahe shadow puppetry gradually flourished. From the Ming and Qing to modern times it was very flourishing in southern Hebei.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Shahe shadow puppetry is a branch of the old opera (laoxi) shadow puppetry of the southern gate of the ancient Shunde prefecture, preserving the distinctive craft of XingTai old shadow artists' rod singing and shadow-prop making, with a great many gongche scores and orally transmitted scripts circulating. Its singing is varied in kind, its orally transmitted repertory rich and its performing skill high, its shadow modelling combining carving and painting with clear regional character. Shahe shadow making is archaic and its carving and painting craft distinctive, drawing on the modelling style of temple sculpture and murals and other folk art, concise in system and fluent in line. In making the shadows, dressed oxhide or small donkey hide is soaked, scraped thin and stretched flat; the “dressing of the hide” is a craft peculiar to the southern gate of Shunde and requires, by incised and relief carving, the several stages of tracing, cutting and carving, colouring and assembly. Its accompanying instruments include mahao, bangzi, drum, gong and hu strings, and the accompanying music is mainly manban, liushuiban, pingban and sanban. Its singing fuses southern Hebei folk music, dialect and Shanxi bangzi tunes, including laohuai diao, xidiao, luantan, yangge opera and bangzi tunes, high, rough and bold. In language it preserves slang and proverbs, its recitation clear and catchy with a rising final tone and a distinctive charm. The movement of folk art and troupes brought the laohuai diao, xidiao and pingdiao shadow troupes into being. The Shahe County Gazetteer records: “Shadow opera entertains the gods with plays.”

More Than Thirty Traditional and Twenty Newly Written Plays

Shahe has several dozen shadow troupes, represented by the Xiajie village troupe, able to perform more than thirty traditional and twenty newly written plays.

Laohuai Diao, Xidiao, Luantan, Yangge Opera and Bangzi Tunes (Singing Styles)

Shahe shadow singing fuses southern Hebei folk music, dialect and Shanxi bangzi tunes, including laohuai diao, xidiao, luantan, yangge opera and bangzi tunes, high, rough and bold.

Dressing the Hide, Tracing, Cutting, Colouring and Assembling (Figure-Making Stages)

Making the shadows requires soaking, scraping thin and stretching dressed oxhide or small donkey hide, the “dressing of the hide” being a craft peculiar to the southern gate of Shunde, followed by tracing, cutting, colouring and assembling.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Shahe shadow puppetry is part of the shadow art of Hebei, a comprehensive art form distributed in southern Hebei and fusing the shadow puppetry and singing features of south-eastern Shanxi and elsewhere; it is found mainly in southern Hebei and also in Shanxi, Shandong and the Taihang mountain area. The southern-gate Shunde shadow puppetry absorbed the features of the traditional drama of Shanxi and Henan and is valuable material for studying southern Hebei regional culture, folk life and shadow culture.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Shahe shadow puppetry arose roughly in the Yuan and has been transmitted in order for several hundred years, with a traceable lineage of fifteen generations. Shahe now has several dozen shadow troupes, represented by the Xiajie village shadow troupe, with twenty actors of the older and younger generations able to perform more than thirty traditional and twenty newly written plays. With government support a Shahe shadow town has been built, and an industrial belt centred on Shahe shadow puppetry and other intangible cultural heritage is gradually taking shape, promoting the project's transmission and development. Its performances are mostly folk stories of loyalty, filial piety, integrity and readiness to help others, teaching through entertainment, meeting the diverse spiritual and cultural needs of the people in the new era and helping to shape good social conduct, carry forward the socialist core values and promote a harmonious society.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Shadow Puppetry (Xingtaishishahe, Hebei) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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