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Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaYangzhou, JiangsuBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Yangzhou is one of the birthplaces of Chinese puppetry; Yangzhou puppetry was famous in the Song, performed everywhere from village threshing grounds and temple roadsides to palace inner quarters.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

After entering the Qing, Yangzhou puppetry successively absorbed the strengths of such operatic genres as Kun, Hui and Jing opera, and through the reform and creation of several generations of artists finally formed the distinctive style of rod-puppet manipulation and performance. Rod-puppet performance requires the actor to master the three basic skills of the “lifting skill” for holding up the puppet, the “rod skill” for manipulating it and the “step skill” expressing a character's gait, to grasp the four essentials of “steady, straight, upright and level”, and to act with practised ease. Yangzhou rod puppets are finely carved and painted, their performance vivid and expressive, much welcomed by audiences. Their traditional repertory is mostly transplanted from Kun, Hui and Jing opera, while modern newly written plays seek new things in both subject and form, the musical arrangement being decided according to play and performance form.

The Seventh-Rank Sesame Official (Grand Puppet Modelling)

One of the grand-puppet modelling designs undertaken in 1988.

The Four Great Beauties (Grand Puppet Modelling)

One of the grand-puppet modelling designs undertaken in 1988, alike in form and spirit and surpassing real persons.

The Puppet Training Routine and Water-Sleeve Movement Suite

Devised by an inheritor, comprising “puppet spear-play, sword-dance, orchid-finger palm-turn and handkerchief-twirl” and more than twenty light, floating, soft and beautiful water-sleeve movements, giving puppet manipulation teaching a relatively standard textbook.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Yangzhou rod puppetry centres on Yangzhou city, Jiangsu, and is popular through central Jiangsu and the Lixiahe area; because Yangzhou was a canal stronghold in the Qing where troupes gathered, its rod puppets toured the wharves of the Jiangnan region, and it later took the Yangzhou Puppet Research Institute (Jiangsu Provincial Puppet Troupe) as its professional performing and transmission body.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The puppets designed and made are alike in form and spirit, no real persons yet surpassing real persons; combining exaggeration and realism, abstraction, concision and interest, they give the puppets more puppet flavour and childlike delight, attending to the harmony of the whole cast's modelling while highlighting each role's individual character.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Yangzhou, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Yin Daning · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Hua Meixia · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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