Puppetry

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. In September 1956, the artist Liu Henggui visited Czechoslovakia and performed the bag puppetry piece Thrice Beating the White-Bone Demon to enormous success. Since 2002, after being publicised by China Central Television and other mainstream media, it has attracted attention at home and abroad.

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. Strings are attached to the 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. Besides traditional operatic items it stages spoken drama, song-and-dance drama, serial plays and even advertisements. At the same time puppetry also faces fierce competition from other art forms. The birthplace of Shaoyang bag puppetry, Yanwo Ridge in Baizhu Village, lies in Jiugongqiao Town, Shaoyang County. According to the Liu family genealogy, at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming, to escape the wars, the Liu ancestor Shenggong fled with his family, bag puppetry on his shoulder, and settled at Yanwo Ridge; more than six hundred years have passed since. Bag puppetry has been transmitted from Shenggong down to the “Yong” generation, eighteen generations in all. Shaoyang bag puppetry is transmitted orally from master to pupil. Its manner and technique of performance: one artist with one shoulder-carried stage; whether the play is grand or small, civil or martial, and whether the roles are sheng, dan, jing, mo or chou, the blowing, striking, plucking, singing and playing all depend on the artist alone, using hands, feet, mouth and tongue together, with the ten fingers flexibly deployed. Its main plays include Investiture of the Gods, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and Yang Xiao Subdues the Tiger, with martial pieces, ghost pieces and comic pieces predominating. Its music is based mainly on the vocal style of Qi opera (Qiju), fresh, plain and pure in manner, and forms a school of its own. Shaoyang bag puppetry combines puppet technique, dramatic form and performing skill in one, with such characteristics as mystery, refinement, novelty and simplicity. For more than six hundred years it has kept the performance technique, performance style and performance form of its founding period, possessing a historical and cultural substance all its own and a high aesthetic interest and value orientation. At its height, more than 110 of Yanwo Ridge's shoulder-carried stages travelled up to Yunnan and Guizhou, down to the Huguang region and into Zhejiang.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The birthplace of Shaoyang bag puppetry, Yanwo Ridge in Baizhu Village, lies in Jiugongqiao Town, Shaoyang County. According to the Liu family genealogy, at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming, to escape the wars, the Liu ancestor Shenggong fled with his family, bag puppetry on his shoulder, and settled at Yanwo Ridge; more than six hundred years have passed since. Bag puppetry has been transmitted from Shenggong down to the “Yong” generation, eighteen generations in all. It is taught orally and by heart: one artist with one shoulder-carried stage, whether the play is grand or small, civil or martial, and whether the roles are sheng, dan, jing, mo or chou, the blowing, striking, plucking, singing and playing are all completed by the artist alone coordinating hands, feet and mouth — a typical form of “one person, one whole show”.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Traditional puppetry embodies the thought, morality and aesthetic consciousness of the people of all regions and ethnic groups, and should be supported and protected. In August 2005 in particular, when the drama channel of China Central Television broadcast a special programme on Shaoyang bag puppetry, its unique artistic and cultural value drew still greater attention and concern from the relevant quarters. Liu Yong'an (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1946, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan. Liu Yong'an was immersed in bag puppetry from childhood; in the 1960s he followed his uncle Liu Hengyi, carrying the stage on his shoulder and performing in the countryside, and from the late 1970s into the 1980s he performed on his own in villages and market towns in Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Hunan. As an eighteenth-generation inheritor of Shaoyang bag puppetry, he has fully mastered its technical characteristics; his representative works include Havoc at Gaojia Village and Huangfeng Ridge, and he now devotes himself to the transmission, research and performance of bag puppetry. A representative inheritor of the puppetry (Shaoyang bag puppetry) national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second national-level batch. Liu Yongzhang (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1942, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan. Liu Yongzhang followed his uncle Liu Henggui in the 1960s, carrying the stage on his shoulder and performing in the countryside, and in the 1980s performed on his own in market towns and villages in Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong. His representative works include Qinglong Mountain and Lord Guan Fights at Changsha, and he now devotes himself to the transmission, research and performance of bag puppetry. A representative inheritor of the puppetry (Shaoyang bag puppetry) national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second national-level batch. As an eighteenth-generation inheritor of Shaoyang bag puppetry, he has fully mastered its technical characteristics, and in 2004 he won the prize of excellence at the Hunan Provincial Expo of Ethnic and Folk Culture and Art.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Chen Yinghong 02-0687
• Chen Zhijie 02-0688
• Li Bofen 02-0689
• Zhuang Chenhua 02-0690
• Chen Jintang 02-0691
• Wang Na 02-0692
• Liu Yongan 02-0693
• Liu Yongzhang 02-0694
• He Wenfu 02-0695
• Cao Zhangling 02-0696
• Ding Qingbo 02-0697
• Chen Peisen 02-0698
• Chen Shaojin 02-0699
• Wang Chunrong 02-0700
• Li Siyuan 02-0701
• Rao Shiguang 02-0702
• Fuzhenghua 02-0703
• Wang Hongmin 02-0704
• Xiao Pengfang 02-0705
• Zhou Erlu 02-0706
• Lin Congpeng 03-1084
• Wang Jiansheng 03-1085
• Yan Sarong 03-1086
• Chen Yansen 03-1087
• Wu Xing 03-1088
• Yin Daning 03-1089
• Hua Meixia 03-1090
• Zhuo Naijin 03-1091
• Wu Mingyue 03-1092
• Zheng Guofang 04-1671
• Ji Guifang 04-1672
• Xu Hong 05-2415
• Zhang Lianghua 05-2416
• Jin Zonghuai 05-2417
• Li Shengyi 05-2418
• Tan Qishu 05-2419
• Liang Dongxing 05-2420
• Li Xinxian 05-2421
• Cui Keqin 05-2422
• Hu Hai 05-2423
• Hong Huijun
• Xiong Guoan
• Lin Youdun
• Chen Weiqun
• Li Mingqing
• Ying Aifang
• Huang Xiaohua
• Chen Junlong
• Cai Xiaohua

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Puppetry (Shaoyang, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Liu Yongan · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Liu Yongzhang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗