Leather-silhouette Show and Puppet Show

Leather-silhouette Show and Puppet Show

Puppet shows are an operatic form in which performers stand behind the curtains and pull wires on wooden puppets to make them move. In accordance with structure of puppets and the manipulation methods of performers, it can be divided into wire-hanging puppet show, stick-supporting puppet and glove puppet show.

In a wire hanging puppet show. threads are tied onto the important joint parts of a puppet such as the head, the back, the arms and the palms and a performer manipulates the puppet by pulling the thread. For the stick-supporting puppet, manipulating sticks are installed on a puppet's head and hands. with the stick at the head as the major one and those on the hands as auxiliary ones. In a performance, the performers hold the sticks with their hands, raising the puppets to control their various motions. And for gloves puppets, a cloth bag is sewed below the neck of a puppet to connect its limbs and a performer puts his hand into the bag to control the puppet for different actions.

The art of puppetry has a long history in ancient China. The performance of puppet acrobatics can date back to the Three Kingdoms Period and puppet shows began to be used to present stories in the Sui Dynasty. Since the 20th century, puppet shows have evolved to include an increasing number of performance types. For example, being that the performers enter the stage from behind the curtain with real persons and puppets performing together on the same stage. The repertoire of puppet shows is also on the rise. After 1930s, puppet shows began to be adapted for films and TV shows.

Leather-silhouette is a general term both for leather-silhouette shows and characters who appear in such shows (including related props and the other stage objects). As its name shows, leather-silhouette is made of leather; for the sake of durability and transparency, the best raw material is donkey and ox skins. Therefore, it is also known as 'donkey leather silhouette'. Such leather is painted with transparent red, yellow, green and black colours to refer it is cut into certain designs. These special materials and colours make the shadow of leather figures and props beautiful and transparent when it is cast onto a backlit cloth screen.

Leather-silhouette figures are also divided into the roles of sheng, dan, jing and chou. Each figure is composed of the head, the upper body, the lower body and the hands which are tied together. Performers control sticks at the neck and hands of the figure to make a range of expressive motions.

Leather-silhouette shows are a comprehensive folk art, involving the cutting of leather figures and props, dyeing, the manipulation of such figures in performance, singing and accompanying music,etc. It is extensively spread throughout China and was once a significant entertainment form for ordinary people. Influenced by local customs, leather-silhouette shows vary from one place to another in the cutting of leather figures, vocal tunes and performance patterns. Therefore, they have formed different genres with the most famous forms on leather-silhouette originating from Shanxi, Hebei and Zhejiang.