| Description |
Shadow puppetry is a kind of performing art. It uses music and operatic singing, to accompany silhouette figures made from leather or paper. These figures are manipulated by performers to create the illusion of moving images in front of an illuminated backdrop.
The inheritors, props, scripts, and musical instruments decide the survival of shadow play groups. A silhouette figure has from 12 to 24 moveable joints, head, hands and so on, and is controlled by 3 poles or sticks.
The music and songs of shadow puppetry have distinctive regional characteristics. There are many unique tunes which have come down from generation to generation.
Shadow plays are performed by bigger troupes with 7 to 9 performers and smaller troupes with 2 to 5 performers. And 2-person troupes with one person performing and the other playing the instruments now exist in Shandong, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces.
Most performers make a living from shadow plays, which are mainly performed for entertainments or for religious rituals, weddings and funerals and other special occasions.
The manufacturing of puppets may require 10 different carving processes, the tools often being home-made. Many shadow puppetry performers can carve the puppets, sing and perform by themselves. And there are two types of scripts, that is, oral-transmitted scripts and written ones.
Some shadow puppetry performers are professional, while many play as amateurs during slack farming seasons. The relevant skills are handed down in families, in the troupes, and from master to pupil. Shadow puppetry has been handed down for over one thousand years. With the evolution of history, the plays, puppets, types of lighting and performance, and the related crafts have developed with regular innovation.
Shadow puppetry is a traditional folk drama that is created by and for the community and contains a thousand years of cultural deposits, as well as passing on diverse cultural information such as cultural history, social beliefs, folklore, and local customs. It spreads knowledge, improves cultural development, and entertains the community, especially the youth. Chinese Shadow Puppetry has significant historic and cultural importance, and should be protected and set on a footing of sustainable development. |
| Social and cultural significance |
Shadow puppetry is a kind of performing art. It uses music and operatic singing, to accompany silhouette figures made from leather or paper. These figures are manipulated by performers to create the illusion of moving images in front of an illuminated backdrop.
Shadow puppetry is a traditional folk drama that is created by and for the community and contains a thousand years of cultural deposits, as well as passing on diverse cultural information such as cultural history, social beliefs, folklore, and local customs. It spreads knowledge, improves cultural development, and entertains the community, especially the youth. Chinese Shadow Puppetry has significant historic and cultural importance, and should be protected and set on a footing of sustainable development. |
| Transmission method |
The inheritors, props, scripts, and musical instruments decide the survival of shadow play groups. A silhouette figure has from 12 to 24 moveable joints, head, hands and so on, and is controlled by 3 poles or sticks.
The music and songs of shadow puppetry have distinctive regional characteristics. There are many unique tunes which have come down from generations to generations.
Shadow plays are performed by bigger troupes with 7 to 9 performers and smaller troupes with 2 to 5 performers. And 2-person troupes with one person performing and the other playing the instruments now exist in Shandong, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces.
Most performers make a living from shadow plays, which are mainly performed for entertainments or for religious rituals, weddings and funerals and other special occasions.
The manufacturing of puppets may require 10 different carving processes, the tools often being home-made. Many shadow puppetry performers can carve the puppets, sing and perform by themselves. And there are two types of scripts, that is, oral-transmitted scripts and written ones.
Many elder shadow puppetry artists can perform dozens of traditional plays which are orally transmitted. And they master special techniques, like singing without music score or rehearsal, falsetto, manipulation of several puppets at the same time with both hands, and one musician playing various musical instruments and singing throughout a show. Also, an abundance of hand-written shadow play scripts have been passed down for generations.
Some shadow puppetry performers are professional, while many play as amateurs during slack farming seasons. The relevant skills are handed down in families, in the troupes, and from masters to pupils. Shadow puppetry has been handed down for over one thousand years. With the evolution of history, the plays, puppets, types of lighting and performance, and the related crafts have developed with regular innovation.
• In 2005, 'Tangshan International Shadow Play Art Exhibition and Performance’ and ‘Chinese Shadow Play Carving Contest’ was held in Tangshan.
• Since 2006, China Puppet and Shadow Art Society with communities concerned and inheritors have carried out large-scale investigation relating to Shadow Puppetry. They have recovered, preserved and recorded the traditional plays performed by the elder shadow play performers, filed scripts, scores and puppet figures, and got a large quantity of inheritance pedigrees and the matters relating to the economic life and well-being of the performers.
• In 2007, the folk artists in Huanxian County held ‘Shadow Play Festival in Huanxian County, China’.
• In 2008, China Puppet and Shadow Art Society successfully held 'China Shadow Play Craftsmanship Contest for Middle-aged and Young Artists' and 'East and West Puppet Play Communication in Peking University' with the purpose of fostering shadow puppetry inheritors.
• In 2009, Chinese Shadow Puppetry Master Qi Yongheng, aged 76, still trains his students in folk performance groups. And the performers in Hubei province run teahouses, where shadow plays are performed every day.
Though the Shadow Puppetry troupes, professional or non-professional, are widely scattered, and are loved by the general public, the market for Shadow Puppetry performances is shrinking with dwindling number of successors, due to the increasingly more ways of entertainments.
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| Community |
China Puppet and Shadow Art Society
State-level conservation units for the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage shadow puppetry (27)
Inheritors* of state-level Intangible Cultural Heritage shadow puppetry (32) [Inheritors* = current masters of the Shadow Puppetry skills who have received them from their ancestors]. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2011 |
