Shadow puppetry is a folk theatre in which silhouettes of leather or cardboard are projected onto a cloth screen by lamplight. With over 2,000 years of history, it is listed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.
The puppets are finely made: cattle or donkey hide goes through 20-plus steps of scraping, polishing, carving, dyeing and stitching; joints are strung so wrists turn and sleeves swirl.
During a show, the puppeteer works the puppets behind the screen while singing and narrating - one person often plays many roles. Classic repertoire includes the White Snake, Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
There are many schools: Huaxian (Shaanxi), Tangshan (Hebei), Huanxian Daoqing (Gansu), each with its own singing style and design.
To experience it: shadow theatres and workshops in Beijing, Xi'an and Tangshan offer shows (50-150 yuan) and DIY classes where you paint and manipulate puppets. Fine puppets are also prized collectibles.
Shadow puppetry is China oldest "animation". People carve donkey or cow hide into figure shapes, colour them, and under lamplight manipulate rods to make shadows perform stories on a screen.
A screen, a lamp, a few puppets, plus the performer singing and playing instruments - a whole show. Behind the screen the artist manipulates puppets while singing and narrating, hands and feet busy - hard work.
Shadow puppetry is over a thousand years old. Legend: Emperor Wu missed his dead concubine; a minister revived her shadow on a screen with cloth and light - one origin tale.
Crafting puppets is exacting: draw the pattern, carve, colour, attach rods. A complex puppet needs hundreds of cuts. The figures are exquisite and brightly coloured - artworks in themselves.
Most plays are history and myth tales like Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Children love watching Monkey King fight demons - the shadow somersaults and twirls its staff, more magical than real animation.
With film and television the art declined, but in recent years people value it again. In 2011 Chinese shadow puppetry became world intangible heritage. Many schools now run puppet classes where children make their own.
Many artists come from hereditary "shadow families", several generations performing. They travel village to village, setting up screens and lamps at night, whole villages gathered to watch.
When in China, see a show at folk villages or museums. Remember: "píyǐng" shadow puppet, "píyǐngxì" shadow play, "mùbù" screen. Watching one, you marvel: a thousand years ago, Chinese already "ran animation".
Shadow puppetry is ancient Chinese wisdom of telling stories with light and shadows.
To see shadow puppetry, besides theatres and folk villages, there is a new place: the internet. Many troupes now livestream performances you can watch from home. Some plays adapt foreign fairy tales, like Little Red Riding Hood, told with Chinese shadows - great fun. Shadow puppetry links ancient and modern, China and the world, reminding us: however technology changes, good stories always find an audience.
