Zhangzhou Puppet Head Carving
01 · Historical Records
This carving has always been transmitted from master to apprentice, mainly through family inheritance across generations, and has been passed down to the present day without interruption.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhangzhou puppet-head carving is a special technique within the making of puppetry props, belonging to folk arts and crafts; it is mainly distributed in Zhangzhou, Xiamen, and Quanzhou in Fujian Province and the surrounding areas. The overall form of a Zhangzhou puppet includes the head, limbs, costume, and headdress and helmet; puppet-head carving refers only to the modeling of the head. As the carving of the heads of opera stage characters, it attaches great importance to the portrayal of the characters' traits; exaggerated forms, rich expressions, and a typified manner of treatment are general characteristics of Zhangzhou puppet-head carving. He has practiced his art for more than half a century, inheriting the excellent carving methods of his forebears while being able to innovate and develop them, forming a unique style of his own. He has designed more than six hundred opera figure types, with all role types — sheng (male), dan (female), jing (painted face), mo (older male), and chou (clown) — represented, among them famous roles from traditional plays as well as immortals, demons, and monsters from myth and legend, each with a different facial design, frank, refined, and beautiful, each with its own expression, vivid and true to life; they are praised as 'treasures of Oriental art'. Xu Zhuchu's puppets are commonly called 'northern-school puppets'; their techniques derive from the stylistic mode of the northern Han opera, emphasizing the expressiveness and characterization of puppet drama and the outward expression of inner spirit and character, stressing 'conveying the spirit through form'. Therefore, before setting his knife he always studies carefully and ponders deeply the background, status, character, likes, and dislikes of the figure to be carved, and only cuts once his thinking is mature; hence his knife work is forceful, capturing both form and spirit, and full of charm. Puppet theater in southern Fujian has a relatively broad mass base in society, and the modeling art of puppet heads has thereby gained a deep foundation for development. A relationship of mutual dependence for survival has formed between the art of puppet-head carving and traditional opera. Under the general decline of opera performance, the transmission of puppet-head carving has also encountered difficulties: if it clings to the opera stage, puppet-head carving can only fall into silence along with opera; if it leaves the opera stage, it can only become a purely ornamental object, and much of the living culture within its traditional techniques would be lost. At present, Zhangzhou puppet-head carving faces exactly this predicament, which needs attention from relevant parties.
Form conveying spirit
His northern-school puppets derive from Han opera, stressing expression and character and letting form convey spirit.
The full role range
Over six hundred designs cover every role type, from opera leads to gods and demons, each with its own face.
Palm puppets
Xu Congliang absorbed modern art methods into the craft, and his son converted stage puppets into palm-sized toys for children.
The puppet's parts
The carving concerns only the head, but its exaggeration, varied expressions and typed treatment shape the whole puppet.
Signature puppet heads
Xu Zhuchu's Old Man and Lei Wanchun and Xu Congliang's tales of the Eight Immortals represent the craft's range.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhangzhou puppet-head carving is mainly distributed in Zhangzhou, Xiamen, and Quanzhou in Fujian Province and the surrounding areas. The modeling art of puppet heads has gained a deep foundation for development because puppet theater in southern Fujian has a relatively broad mass base in society, and a relationship of mutual dependence for survival has formed between the art of puppet-head carving and traditional opera; this carving has always been transmitted from master to apprentice, mainly through family inheritance across generations, and has been passed down to the present day without interruption.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Puppet Head Carving · Puppet Head Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The current representative inheritor of Zhangzhou puppet-head carving is Xu Zhuchu. Xu Zhuchu (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1938, from Zhangzhou, Fujian. Representative inheritor of Zhangzhou puppet-head carving, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project; an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council; researcher in folk art creation at the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Xu Zhuchu's puppet carving is commonly known as 'northern-school puppetry'; its materials and techniques derive from the stylistic mode of Han opera, emphasizing the expressiveness and characterization of drama. While inheriting the excellent carving methods of his forebears, he formed his own unique style; his puppet models number more than six hundred, with all role types — sheng, dan, jing, mo, and chou — represented, each with its own expression, vivid and true to life. Representative works include: Old Man (Lao Weng) and Lei Wanchun (Lei Wanchun), among others. At present, Xu Zhuchu and his son Xu Qiang firmly uphold and actively transmit the Xu-family techniques of puppet-head carving. Xu Congliang (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1950, from Zhangzhou, Fujian. Representative inheritor of the techniques of Zhangzhou puppet-head carving, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Born into a family of puppet carvers, Xu Congliang joined the Zhangzhou Puppet Theater Troupe in 1970, specializing in puppet carving; in 1979 he was transferred to the Zhangzhou puppet class of the Provincial Art School to teach the art of puppet-head carving; in 1989 he returned to the Zhangzhou Puppet Theater Troupe to work on puppet model design. On the basis of inheriting traditional techniques, Xu Congliang absorbed the methods of modern fine art in his creation, emphasizing the characterization of his models and showing great creativity. His son Xu Yu transformed performance puppets into hand puppets suitable for children to play with, promoting the popularization of puppet heads. Representative works include: The Legend of the Lackey (Gou Tu Zi de Chuanshuo), The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea (Ba Xian Guo Hai), and Yue Fei (Yue Fei), among others. He has served as model designer for several hundred puppet figures in more than forty puppet art films (and series), and the models for many of the plays have won national-level art awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Zhuchu 01-0105
- Xu Congliang 01-0106
- Huang Yiluo 03-1247
- Ji Tianyuan 05-2616
- Jiang Bifeng 05-2617
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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