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Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaQuanzhou, FujianBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Chinese puppetry arose in the Han dynasty; by the Tang it had made new progress and could perform song-and-dance drama with puppets. With social and economic development, by the Ming puppetry was already popular across the country, flourishing especially in the economically developed southern provinces, hence the saying “the south is good at puppetry”. After the Qing it entered its heyday, not only spreading widely but with ever more vocal styles, producing such branches as Liaoxi puppetry, Zhangzhou bag puppetry, Quanzhou marionette puppetry, Jinjiang bag puppetry, Shaoyang bag puppetry, Gaozhou puppetry, Chaozhou iron-rod puppetry, northern Sichuan grandes marionnettes, Shiqian puppetry, Yang marionette puppetry, Taishun fireworks puppetry and Lin'gao human-puppet opera. It derives from the Qin and Han and passed uninterrupted through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republican period.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Puppetry was anciently called “kuilei opera” and “kuileizi” and is an operatic form in which artists manipulate puppets to tell stories. The Song was an important period in its development, its puppet-making craft and manipulation technique maturing further. In terms of performance form it may be summarised as five kinds: marionette (string), rod, bag, iron-rod and fireworks puppetry. Puppet art is exquisite and breathtaking; besides the artists' fine performance, the perfect modelling art of the puppets and the operating equipment are also an important attraction for audiences. The modelling art lies in the carving and design of the puppets: generally marionettes are taller, mostly about 2.2 chi, with strings attached to key parts, at most more than thirty and at least a dozen, extra auxiliary strings being added as needed for special feats. The level of the puppets' dance poses and martial feats depends entirely on the artist's operating skill, which is the key to the standard of marionette performance. Rod puppets are taller than marionettes, generally about 3 chi tall, fitted with three operating rods, two working the hands and one controlling the head and body. Bag puppets are the smallest, only about seven inches, held up by the artist's two hands, their manipulation special and unlike marionettes and rod puppets. After the founding of the People's Republic of China puppetry performance became ever richer, staging not only traditional operatic items but also spoken drama, song-and-dance drama, serial plays and even advertisements. At the same time puppetry also faces fierce competition from other art forms. Quanzhou puppet theatre, anciently called “xuansi kuilei” (marionette on suspended strings) and today called marionette puppetry, came south into Fujian with Central Plains migrants in the Jin and Tang and was already current in the Quanzhou area by the late Tang and Five Dynasties. For a thousand years Quanzhou puppetry has been not only an indispensable part of the folklore of Quanzhou and the wider Minnan-speaking region but, through its distinctive skills and brilliant performance, a folk operatic art enjoyed alike by ordinary people and by scholar-officials. Through a thousand years of uninterrupted transmission it preserves more than seven hundred traditional plays and a distinctive operatic music, the “kuilei diao”, built on the tunes of more than three hundred qupai (including such ancient instruments as the yajiao drum and the zhengluo gong and their performing techniques), and has formed a complete and refined set of string-manipulation skills, the “traditional basic string rules”, together with exquisite puppet-head carving and figure-modelling craft. Its traditional repertory preserves much of the wedding, funeral, festive and religious custom of old Quanzhou, and also many precious materials of Song and Yuan nanxi—plays, music, staging methods and performance forms.

Mulian Rescues His Mother

The oldest full-length serial play of Quanzhou marionette puppetry, staged at folk rites such as the mid-year universal salvation festival; it is the greatest embodiment of “kuilei diao” music and string technique.

Tripitaka Fetches the Sutras

A serial play in six parts, with Mulian Rescues His Mother one of the most representative long works in the traditional repertory.

Li Shimin Tours the Underworld

One of the traditional plays, revived under the inheritor Chen Zhijie; it preserves the staging methods of Song and Yuan nanxi.

Flooding Jinshan Temple

A traditional play noted for its string-technique feats, performed by the inheritor Chen Zhijie.

The Flaming Mountains

A traditional play whose martial and feat scenes best display Quanzhou marionette string craft.

The Traditional Basic String Rules

The string-manipulation conventions accumulated over a thousand years, the core standard of marionette performance technique.

Kuilei Diao (More Than Three Hundred Qupai)

The genre's music, built on more than three hundred qupai, using such ancient instruments as the yajiao drum and zhengluo gong with their performing techniques.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

It preserves the vocabulary, idiom and ancient readings of “old Heluo speech” and the Minnan dialect. Because of Quanzhou's particular geographical, historical and cultural ties with Taiwan and South-East Asia, Quanzhou puppetry began to spread in the late Ming and early Qing to Taiwan and to overseas Chinese communities and took root there, serving as an important bridge for spreading Minnan speech and culture, continuing national cultural transmission, linking compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Chinese communities in South-East Asia, and strengthening cultural identity.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

As a living repository of ancient Minnan culture, Quanzhou puppetry accordingly has multidisciplinary research value for “Minnan cultural studies”, “Minnan dialect studies” and “Song and Yuan nanxi studies”, and has drawn wide attention from scholars at home and abroad.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Quanzhou, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Chen Yinghong · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Chen Zhijie · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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