Chinese Craft Stories NATIONAL HERITAGE INVENTORY
Home / Inventory / Ⅳ-92

Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaGaozhou, GuangdongBatch 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. Gaozhou puppetry belongs to rod puppetry and began in the Wanli reign of the Ming, developing out of Fujian bag puppetry; its primitive form was the single-operator puppet play, and middle-sized troupes developed in the late Qing.

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. Gaozhou puppetry, also called “kui xi” and “kuizai xi”, is a folk operatic art much loved by the people. For several hundred years it has circulated widely through the villages of Gaozhou, and of the city's 28 towns and sub-district offices 23 have kui troupes. It needs no fixed performing ground—a small open space suffices to set up the stage—and is performed in all four seasons, most of all in spring, at the Lantern Festival, the nianli festivals and festive occasions, to entertain both gods and people. It is performed in Gaozhou vernacular, its lyrics in seven-character verse form and its vocal style, the “puppet tune”, based on Gaozhou mountain songs and narrative in manner. Its content is mostly drawn from historical romances, court-case novels, folk legends and myths, and its traditional plays number several hundred. The characters are sharply divided into loyal and treacherous, good and evil, so that it spreads historical knowledge and traditional moral teaching among the people. Gaozhou puppet heads are finely carved and the performance technique masterly; the figures can wink, spout smoke and fire and be beheaded, and the artists combine singing, acting, recitation, combat and musicianship in one person—a folk operatic art fusing carving, costume, performance, script and music, an outstanding spiritual heritage of humanity and a treasure of Chinese folk art. As the saying goes, “first came kui opera, then human opera”.

Driven to Join the Rebels

One of the representative plays of Gaozhou puppetry led by the inheritor He Wenfu.

Liu Yi Delivers the Letter

A representative play, directed by He Wenfu and starred in by several inheritors.

Chang'e Flies to the Moon

One of the representative plays, displaying such difficult feats as the rolling of the puppet's eyes.

Monkey King Thrice Borrows the Banana Fan

One of the representative plays, concentrating martial scenes and feats.

Nezha Stirs Up the Sea

One of the representative plays led by the inheritor He Wenfu.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Drawing on surveys of Gaozhou troupes, Gaozhou puppetry centres on Gaozhou city in Guangdong and circulates through Maoming, Huazhou, Xinyi and Dianbai in western Guangdong; according to the size and mode of operation, the locality distinguishes the single-operator puppet play from the middle-sized and large troupes, a single operator manipulating, singing and playing at once, the larger troupes dividing manipulation and the civil and martial accompaniment among several men.

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

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Gaozhou puppetry is of significance for studying the history of Chinese drama, the history of ethnic and folk culture and community history, and for building a new culture. It now faces a crisis of survival and the danger of loss: social transformation, the impact of a strong economy, cultural pluralism and young people's changing entertainment choices have sharply reduced audiences, leaving puppet art without successors, the descendants of famous artists unwilling to take up the craft and few people in society to transmit it.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Gaozhou, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. He Wenfu · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Cao Zhangling · National Representative Bearer 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。