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Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaPingyang, ZhejiangBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

It has been transmitted in Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province for a very long time, taking shape no later than the Song dynasty and reaching its height in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Qihai Suotan (Miscellaneous Talks at the Forked Sea) of Jiang Zhun in the Ming dynasty says that puppet performers of the Pingyang area such as Huang Zifu at that time "were skilled of mind in devising puppets, moved them by mechanism, no different from living men... their voices were clear and ringing, surpassing all others of the time". The Chuantun Yuchang (Fishing Songs at the Boat Village) of Zhang Zuanwu in the Qing dynasty in turn sings: "children shape gong and shang on their lips, having learned Kunshan and Yiyang. In the Republic period Pingyang puppetry was still very flourishing; in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China the county still had more than one hundred troupes, of which 42 were mainly string puppetry (marionette), 75 mainly bag puppetry and one mainly rod puppetry, with more than five hundred people working in the art. The figures of Pingyang puppetry are distinctive in design; the puppet heads and costumes made since the Ming and Qing dynasties are finely worked, are preserved complete and carry a strong local colouring.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The verse "one need not set a banquet to watch Baolao; performed here, the dancing sleeves are just as apt" depicts the state of Pingyang puppetry performance at that time. From the verse it can be seen that performances of puppetry at that time already sang both Kunshan tune and Yiyang tune. Pingyang puppetry sings in six vocal systems — gaoqiang, Kun, Hui, luantan, shidiao and tanhuang — and both its singing and its recitation make use of Mandarin, the O (Wenzhou) dialect and the Min dialect. Its performance forms are varied, combining the four kinds of puppet manipulation — string, rod, bag and hand puppetry — into one, with string puppetry as the principal. In long performance Pingyang puppetry accumulated a large repertoire: traditional plays alone number more than three hundred and their subjects touch every aspect of society. Plays such as Shuiman Jinshan (The Flood over Mount Jin) and Shizhen Feizhuan (The Turning of the Clock Hand) have won awards many times, and the art has four times gone to Beijing for performances and four times gone abroad for exchange performances, being renowned at home and overseas.

Shuiman Jinshan (The Flood over Mount Jin)

In long performance Pingyang puppetry accumulated a large repertoire: traditional plays alone number more than three hundred and their subjects touch every aspect of society. Plays such as Shuiman Jinshan (The Flood over Mount Jin) and Shizhen Feizhuan (The Turning of the Clock Hand) have won awards many times, and the art has four times gone to Beijing for performances and four times gone abroad for exchange performances, being renowned at home and overseas.

Shizhen Feizhuan (The Turning of the Clock Hand)

In long performance Pingyang puppetry accumulated a large repertoire: traditional plays alone number more than three hundred and their subjects touch every aspect of society. Plays such as Shuiman Jinshan (The Flood over Mount Jin) and Shizhen Feizhuan (The Turning of the Clock Hand) have won awards many times, and the art has four times gone to Beijing for performances and four times gone abroad for exchange performances, being renowned at home and overseas.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Pingyang puppetry is transmitted in the area of Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province, taking shape no later than the Song dynasty and reaching its height in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Qihai Suotan of Jiang Zhun in the Ming dynasty says that puppet performers of the Pingyang area such as Huang Zifu at that time "were skilled of mind in devising puppets, moved them by mechanism, no different from living men"; it was still very flourishing in the Republic period, and in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China the county still had more than one hundred troupes, of which 42 were mainly string puppetry, 75 mainly bag puppetry and one mainly rod puppetry, with more than five hundred people working in the art. It combines the four kinds of performance — string, rod, bag and hand puppetry — into one with string puppetry as the principal, and sings the six vocal systems of gaoqiang, Kun, Hui, luantan, shidiao and tanhuang.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Pingyang puppetry is a comprehensive form of puppet performance, of high spectator value and artistic research value. Zhuo Naijin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in May 1933, native of Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province. At the same time he is skilled both in the manipulation of string puppets and in the making of puppets and of puppet costumes and props. Representative inheritor of the puppetry (Pingyang puppetry) national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the third batch. He plays leading roles in many of the plays; he won the first prize for performance at the national puppetry and shadow puppetry competition, the highest honour award at the eleventh international puppet art festival in Mexico, and other prizes, and was granted by the Chinese Society of Puppetry and Shadow Puppetry Art the award for forty years of devotion to the cause of Chinese puppetry and shadow puppetry art. He has trained many disciples, among them Zhuo Xiaojun, Wang Shimin, Ying Aifang and Zhuang Jiachen, who have become the backbone of Pingyang puppetry.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Pingyang, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Zhuo Naijin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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