Shadow Puppet

2016-07-22 Source：english.cri.cn

The lights are on. On the white cloth, a market appears. Peddlers holler. People run around and enjoy themselves. Drums and gongs churn out deafening sounds. As the light flicks on, the show is over. If you are curious and walk to behind the cloth, you will uncover just one person there. He holds several shadow puppets with two hands. Under his feet, there are a drum and a gong. All exciting acts have been performed by one person. This would be the famous shadow puppetry of China.

What is a shadow puppet? People paint on animal leather to create various images. Sticks are utilized to control different segments of leather figures for movements. Performers control shadow puppets behind a white cloth. Through the illuminated cloth, audiences could enjoy shadow movements on the cloth. Performers speak, sing and kick the gong and drum without a stop. It takes a long time to master all the necessary skills for a shadow puppet performance. There seems to be a sad and romantic story behind the invention of the shadow puppet show.

More than 2,000 years ago, an emperor missed his deceased empress so much that he lost his appetite. A minister painted the empress' image on the cloth and used sticks to control the figurine's movement. That evening, the emperor was excited to observe his deceased wife behind the cloth. It's a pity that fewer people nowadays have the skills of shadow puppet-making and performing.