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Puppetry

Ⅳ-92Traditional OperaShaanxiBatch 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

The head of the Shaanxi rod puppet is mostly carved from wood; according to the character's status, age, sex and traits it is boldly exaggerated and reasonably deformed to make the role's features more prominent and distinct. In performance the manipulator may sing and dance with the puppet, or others may sing for him behind the scenes. Puppetry can show many difficult movements real actors cannot perform on a grand opera stage, such as Sun Wukong's “riding the clouds and driving the mist”. Shaanxi rod puppetry sings mainly in Qin opera, with civil and martial accompaniment, its instrumental qupai and banlu the same as those of grand Qin opera. Its performance form is simple and flexible and its content varied, much loved by the people and still circulating today. The Shaanxi rod puppet is an “inner-rod puppet”, its hand rods inside the costume: on the top of the central rod (a pine rod about eighty centimetres long and three centimetres thick, thicker above and thinner below, also called the “life-rod”) at seventy-five centimetres a plank twenty centimetres long, eight wide and two thick is fitted crosswise as the shoulders. Shaanxi rod puppetry is a lifting art: in performance the left arm holds the central rod and the right hand works the hand-rods; the left hand grips the central rod in the palm with the middle, ring and little fingers, the thumb propping it from behind and the index finger hooking the puppet's eye-line and mouth-line, while the right hand works the hand-rods, placed left and right behind the central rod with their bases in the palm, the thumb and index finger working the puppet's right hand-rod and the middle and ring fingers its left.

The Inner-Rod Puppet (Structural Feature)

The Shaanxi rod puppet is an “inner-rod puppet”, its hand-rods inside the costume; a plank is fitted crosswise as the shoulders seventy-five centimetres up the central rod.

The Life-Rod and Hand-Rod Manipulation

In performance the left arm lifts the central rod and the right hand works the hand-rods; the left hand grips the central rod with the middle, ring and little fingers and the index finger hooks the eye-line and mouth-line.

Qin Opera Singing with Civil and Martial Accompaniment

Qin opera is the main singing form, with civil and martial accompaniment, its instrumental qupai and banlu the same as those of grand Qin opera.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Shaanxi rod puppetry circulates in Shaanxi, with the Guanzhong plain as its core area and southern Shaanxi as its radiating area, locally called “running the platform”; its roles divide into sheng, dan, jing and chou.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Shaanxi rod puppetry is closely bound up with people's lives and is an epitome of agrarian social life; it has value for transmitting cultural knowledge and studying the development of Shaanxi's agrarian society, and has also played a part in carrying forward fine national culture and strengthening cultural identity.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Puppetry (Shaanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Wang Hongmin · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Xiao Pengfang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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