A traditional Chinese puppetry performance—with a contemporary twist-- Beijing Review bjreview.com.cn - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bjreview.com.cn Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Ye Chuanzeng Shadow puppetry, also known as shadow play, is an ancient art form of storytelling and entertainment in China. It consists of handmade puppets moving behind a thin translucent curtain or screen inside a dark theatre. Tengchong, a county-level city in southwest China's Yunnan province, boasts a history…
Shadow puppetry: Old art, young blood
A shadow puppet portraying Hua Mulan, a fictional folk heroine in ancient China, at a shadow puppetry theater in Tengchong, Yunnan Province. (People s Daily Online/Meng Bin) Sleeping in the showcase, a shadow puppet may look like nothing special. Without a good look, one probably couldn t tell it from the paper-cuttings commonly seen in art galleries. Just hold on. A nocturnal creature, the puppet usually comes out after sunset; only in the hands of a puppeteer will it wake up and begin its daily stretches. When the light source and music are ready, the puppets, controlled by rods, will step onto the stage, a translucent cloth screen illuminated from behind, and the show is on.