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Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaZizhong, SichuanBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Puppetry, anciently called “kuilei opera” and “kuileizi”, is a dramatic form in which artists manipulate puppets to tell stories; it arose in the Han and after the Qing entered its heyday, spreading widely with ever more vocal styles.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Middle-sized rod puppetry is a puppetry circulating in Zizhong county, Sichuan, whose people call the puppets “wooden skulls”. Zizhong, anciently Zizhou, lies in the middle of the Sichuan basin and today belongs to Neijiang. Around the middle of the Qing the puppet-making craftsmen changed to modelling the puppet heads in clay (clay slip), turning the small puppet into a middle-sized rod puppet; the Zizhou gazette records that in the Guangxu reign Zizhou puppetry flourished, with more than ten troupes such as the Jintai, Yuxiang and Longquan troupes active in town and country. The middle-sized rod puppet is about ninety centimetres tall and weighs about 1.5 to 2.5 kilogrammes, manipulated by the performer with one life-rod (joined to the head) and two hand-rods (joined to the hands); characters are shaped according to role and character with the cooperation of music and sung dialogue to unfold the plot. Its performance has three elements: first, lifting, holding the life-rod in the left hand to raise the puppet, attending to the use of the wrist and to keeping the puppet level, steady and straight; second, rubbing, the basic technique of working the hand-rods with the right hand, stressing “steady, accurate and lively”; third, stepwork, imitating people's and animals' walking, jumping and turning, in which, because puppet and human differ in proportion, the steps must be small, fine, level and strongly rhythmic. In making them the material is the locally distinctive ma-liu wood and porcelain clay, with bamboo strips, wood, hemp rope and paper besides; the process covers making the head, carving the frame and hands, making the hand-joints and limbs, making the life-rod and making the costume. Attention is paid to fitting the mouth, eyes, nose, brows, neck, hands and feet, so that the puppets have head, chest, belly and four limbs and their mouth, eyes, nose, brows and neck all move freely, closely resembling real people: they can walk on two legs, bend down to bow, dress and undress, and also light a fire, smoke, serve tea, drink water and play, sing and strum. At major festivals thousands of people vie to watch the “wooden-skull play”, a great local cultural spectacle.

Monkey King Thrice Defeats the White Bone Demon

One of the large mythological puppet plays in which the inheritor played the lead.

The Ruby

One of the large mythological puppet plays in which the inheritor played the lead.

Fighting the Demon

One of the large mythological puppet plays in which the inheritor played the lead.

Making the Head

One stage of the craft: modelling the head chiefly from ma-liu wood and porcelain clay, attending to fitting mouth, eyes, nose and brows so the features move freely.

Carving the Frame and Hands

The second stage: carving the puppet's frame and two hands so that it can dress and undress, serve tea and drink water.

Fitting the Life-Rod and Hand-Rods

The third stage: fitting the life-rod joined to the head and two hand-rods joined to the hands, the basis of the three performance elements of lifting, rubbing and stepwork.

Making the Costume

The fourth stage: making robe, skirt, helmet or cap and boots or shoes according to role, shaping the character together with the head and frame.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In terms of performance form puppetry divides into marionette, rod, bag, iron-rod and fireworks puppetry; middle-sized rod puppetry manifests the deep historical and cultural deposit of Zizhong county, Sichuan, and is an artistic treasure of Ba-Shu regional culture, very active locally and much loved by the people.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The inheritor, a national second-class actor, entered the Zizhong county puppet troupe at sixteen, studying under the local puppet master Zhang Fanxiu and the veteran puppet-maker Li Yousheng; he has taken part in more than eighty plays and programmes and undertaken the making of more than a hundred puppets of different types and styles, successfully developing such feats as puppet face-changing, calligraphy and acrobatics, and training more than forty professionals. He has played the lead in such large mythological puppet plays as Monkey King Thrice Defeats the White Bone Demon, The Ruby and Fighting the Demon, and has won the Golden Lion Award, Kazakhstan's highest actor's merit award, a special award at the third Ukrainian international art festival and the title of advanced worker in the national cultural system.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Zizhong, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Hu Hai · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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