Puppet Head Carving
01 · Historical Records
In the late years of the Southern Song, string puppet theater was transmitted from Hangzhou to Taishun; at first, string-puppet performers also carved puppet heads, and during the Ming and Qing periods specialized puppet-head carving artisans appeared.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Taishun puppet-head carving is a puppet modeling art circulated in Taishun County, Zhejiang Province. Taishun puppet-head carving reached a high level during the Ming and Qing periods, and is renowned for 'fine and concise carving, quiet and beautiful facial modeling, simple and plain painting of facial patterns, meticulous and refined pastel-color technique, and puppet figures each with a distinct character'. Taishun puppet-head carving combines carving technique with painted-color craft: the head is first carved into shape from camphor wood or other hardwood of relatively fine grain, after which pastel-color painting is applied. The carving mnemonic runs: split the four sides, fix the center, find the triangle, trim the circle. Its modeling characteristic is to exaggerate and distort the proportions of the head, with brisk and succinct lines and handsome stage images; the sheng, dan, jing, mo, and chou role types, and loyal, treacherous, worthy, and foolish characters, each have their own distinguishing traits. To enhance expressiveness, Taishun puppet heads have grown from the traditional 15 model types to more than 180, with nearly 300 facial patterns, and the facial movement techniques in particular have increased from a few to 15. The mechanism settings that allow the facial structure to move are used mostly on the heads of chou, jing, and spirit-monster figures. For sheng and dan figures, the eyes are set to glance left and right. Taishun puppet-head carving has developed continuously on the basis of inheriting tradition, forming a puppet modeling art with the local characteristics of southern Zhejiang. Taishun puppet-head carving relies mostly on family and master-apprentice transmission, and has many renowned masters.
The carver's mnemonic
The inherited carving mnemonic of Taishun puppet heads, worked first in camphor or fine-grained wood and then painted in powder colours.
From fifteen heads to over 180 face designs
To widen expression Taishun expanded from fifteen traditional head types to more than 180, with nearly 300 face designs and fifteen facial mechanisms.
The moving facial mechanisms
Mechanisms are fitted mostly to clown, painted-face and demon heads, while sheng and dan heads are given eyes that glance from side to side.
Ji Tianyuan and the Taishun craft toy institute
The national inheritor Ji Tianyuan, born 1964, trained in Wenzhou and at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and founded the Taishun craft toy institute in 1987.
The arrival of marionettes and the master legend
Marionette theatre reached Taishun from Hangzhou in the late Southern Song; string players first carved their own heads before specialist carvers appeared in the Ming and Qing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
To this day, stories of the puppet master's spirit manifesting itself still circulate among the local people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhangzhou Puppet Head Carving · Puppet Head Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Over the centuries it has developed continuously on the basis of inheriting tradition, providing valuable examples for the study of Chinese puppetry; its carving techniques are mature, and each era has its own style, giving it historical and cultural value, collection value, and aesthetic value. At the same time, Taishun puppet-head carving occupies an important place in puppet theater and is much loved by the people of southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian, giving it entertainment value and social value. Ji Tianyuan (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1964, from Taishun County, Zhejiang Province. From 1982 to 1987 she successively received training and study at the Wenzhou Arts and Crafts Sculpture Special Training Class, the Zhejiang Arts and Crafts School, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the Changming Toy Factory of Fujian Province. In 1987 she founded the Taishun County Arts and Crafts Toy Research Institute. She has been engaged in the design and making of puppet-head carving and turned-wood toys for nearly thirty years; representative works including Antique-Style Doll (Fanggu Wawa), Tang-Style Maiden (Fangtang Shinv), and Drama Figure Models (Xiju Renwu Zaoxing) have been shown at exhibitions at various levels and have won awards. Representative inheritor of puppet-head carving (Taishun puppet-head carving), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.
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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