How many of you watched Kung Fu
Panda 2? The movie itself has got nothing to do with Chinese crafts, but the
intro, the flashbacks and the credits feature the unique style of
Chinese shadow puppetry. I found a video of the end credits on YouTube for
those who haven`t watched the movie.
As I already mentioned in my post
China`s intangible Cultural Heritage, Chinese shadow puppetry has been inscribed in 2011 on the UNESCO
list of List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
All the pictures in this post are a courtesy of Xu Qi.
Yesterday we had an interesting
chat with Xu Qi, the apprentice of Wei JinQuan, a famous puppeteer from Huaxian
(Shaanxi Province) who together with his troupe have taken Huaxian shadow
puppet shows as far as Germany, the UK and France, receiving
overwhelming praise.
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| Wei JinQuan after a performance abroad |
Xu Qi, who is learning to make and
manipulate the puppets at Wei JinQuan`s workshop, told us about his master
and this fascinating art.
Chinese shadow puppetry is a form
of theater acted by colorful silhouette figures, usually made of donkey, cow or
sheep leather, accompanied by music and opera-like singing. Manipulated
by puppeteers using rods, the figures create the illusion of moving images on a
translucent cloth screen illuminated from behind. Actually, contrary to what
the name suggests, viewed through the white screen the puppets aren`t just
shadows, but their color is bright and visible through the screen.
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| Wei JinQuan removing the fur from some leather |
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| Carving the leather |
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| After coloring the figures are dewatered to make the colors penetrate in the leather |
Performers manipulate puppets,
while the other members of the troupe sing the story in an opera-like style,
and play accompanying music.
The puppeteer must also memorize
the songs and rhythm of more than 50 plays, some of which can last a couple of
hours, in order to coordinate the movements of the puppets with the music and
singing.
A full-length play usually
involves more than 60 figures, and Wei JinQuan, who is the only one in his troupe to
handle the puppets, can manipulate more than 10 puppets at a time. For the
troupe’s repertoire he regularly uses 100 puppet bodies onto which he can add around
400 heads of different characters.
Wei JinQuan is the leader of
Huaxian’s Guang Hua Shadow Play Troupe and comes from a long line of shadow
puppet players, his grandfather and father were both part of puppet troupe
orchestras.
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| The troupe behind the stage |
Before the Cultural Revolution, when
many puppets were destroyed and troupes dismantled, puppet troupes were very
active in Huaxian, playing almost every day and competing with each other to
perform at fairs. They used to travel from town to town to perform at weddings,
funerals and other important occasions in village life. After the Cultural
Revolution, only a few troupes remained, and today the three troupes remaining perform
very seldom, upon request only.
Xu Qi told us that nowadays many
young Chinese don`t know about the art of shadow puppetry, but it seems like its
popularity is increasing in the Western Countries. Guang Hua Shadow Play Troupe was recently interviewed by BBC`s Micheal Wood, who is making a documentary about the history of China.
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| Group picture with the BBC crew |
Wei JinQuan also carves
puppets for Jean-Luc Penso, a French puppeteer, who studied with him for
several months before starting his own troupe in France.
Wei JinQuan welcomes in his home anybody
willing to learn the art of shadow puppetry, and is more than happy to teach
them! If you are interested we can help you to get in touch with him.
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| Learning to manipulate the puppets |
Now forget about Kung Fu Panda
and watch Zhang Yimou’s touching movie “To Live” to see how the life of a family,
where the father happens to be member of a shadow puppetry troupe, was like
between the 1940`s and 1970`s.
Xu Qi told us that Pan Jingle, 83 years old member of Guang Hua Shadow Play
Troupe, was the one who dubbed the shadow play scenes in the movie. One more
reason to watch this movie!
In another post I will explain more in detail how the puppets are made and I will introduce Wang Tianwen, the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage praised as " No.1 in Carving of Shadow Figure".
