MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Shadow Puppet Theatre

One voice tells a thousand years, two hands move an army

Introduction

Plays acted by carved leather or paper figures, their shadows cast on a lit screen

Shadow puppet theatre uses jointed figures cut from hide or card, moved on bamboo rods by performers behind a white paper or cloth screen (the liangzi); the lamp throws their shadows on the screen while the troupe, usually five or six people, sings in the local vocal style with its band. The national item (IV-91) has thirty-five sub-items, chief among them the shadow plays of Tangshan (Luanzhou shadows), Huaxian bowl-clapper tunes (wanwanqiang), Huayin laoqiang, Huanxian daoqing, Lufeng and Haining; Tangshan keeps more than 500 shadow scripts. Under Song Renzong storytellers' Three Kingdoms tales were first carved into shadow figures, and the Northern Song capital had shadow-play masters such as Dong Shiwu; in the Qianlong and Jiaqing years Li Fanggui wrote the Ten Great Scripts for wanwanqiang shadows. Chinese shadow puppetry was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List in 2011.

Timeline

Reign of Song Renzong (Northern Song) to present
1040 · OriginIn the reign of Song Renzong (1022-1063), 'among the townsmen were some who could tell the tales of the Three Kingdoms'; their stories were embellished and carved into shadow figures, 'first showing the wars of Wei, Wu and Shu' (Gao Cheng, Shiwu jiyuan); Zhang Lei's Mingdao zazhi tells of a rich young man in the capital who loved shadow plays and wept whenever Guan Yu was beheaded.1120 · EvolutionKaifeng's entertainment quarters had shadow-play masters such as Dong Shiwu, Zhao Qi and Cao Baoyi, and Ding Yi and Shou Ji 'played comic shadows' (Dongjing menghua lu, juan 5); the Southern Song Ducheng jisheng (1235) says the figures 'were first carved from plain paper and later made of coloured hide', with loyal men given upright faces and villains ugly ones.1790 · EvolutionIn the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns the Weinan scholar Li Fanggui and others wrote the Ten Great Scripts and other plays for Huaxian wanwanqiang shadows; Luanzhou shadow theatre (Tangshan), generally dated to the late Ming, gained a large body of written scripts in the Qing.2011 · ImpactIn 2006 thirteen sub-items including Tangshan, southern Hebei, Huaxian, Huayin laoqiang and Huanxian daoqing entered the first national ICH list (IV-91), extended to thirty-five sub-items by 2021; in 2011 Chinese shadow puppetry was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (6.COM).
  1. 1040OriginIn the reign of Song Renzong (1022-1063), 'among the townsmen were some who could tell the tales of the Three Kingdoms'; their stories were embellished and carved into shadow figures, 'first showing the wars of Wei, Wu and Shu' (Gao Cheng, Shiwu jiyuan); Zhang Lei's Mingdao zazhi tells of a rich young man in the capital who loved shadow plays and wept whenever Guan Yu was beheaded.
  2. 1120EvolutionKaifeng's entertainment quarters had shadow-play masters such as Dong Shiwu, Zhao Qi and Cao Baoyi, and Ding Yi and Shou Ji 'played comic shadows' (Dongjing menghua lu, juan 5); the Southern Song Ducheng jisheng (1235) says the figures 'were first carved from plain paper and later made of coloured hide', with loyal men given upright faces and villains ugly ones.
  3. 1790EvolutionIn the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns the Weinan scholar Li Fanggui and others wrote the Ten Great Scripts and other plays for Huaxian wanwanqiang shadows; Luanzhou shadow theatre (Tangshan), generally dated to the late Ming, gained a large body of written scripts in the Qing.
  4. 2011ImpactIn 2006 thirteen sub-items including Tangshan, southern Hebei, Huaxian, Huayin laoqiang and Huanxian daoqing entered the first national ICH list (IV-91), extended to thirty-five sub-items by 2021; in 2011 Chinese shadow puppetry was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (6.COM).

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · IV-91 Shadow puppetry [no. 235: Tangshan · southern Hebei · Xiaoyi · Fuzhou · Haining · Jianghan Plain · Lufeng and Huaxian shadow plays · Huayin laoqiang · Agongqiang · Xianbanqiang · Huanxian daoqing shadow play · Lingyuan shadow play · Tangshan and Handan · Hebei · Xiaoyi · Shanxi · Wafangdian · Liaoning · Haining · Zhejiang · Qianjiang · Hubei · Shanwei · Guangdong · Weinan · Huayin · Fuping and Qianxian · Shaanxi · Huanxian · Gansu · Lingyuan · Liaoning]
  2. 2008National ICH extension itemsIV-91 Shadow puppetry: Beijing · Hejian · Xiuyan · Gaizhou · Wangkui · Mount Tai · Jinan · Dingtao · Luoshan · Hunan · Sichuan and Hehuang shadow plays · Xuanwu district · Beijing · Hejian · Hebei · Anshan and Gaizhou · Liaoning · Wangkui · Heilongjiang · Tai'an · Jinan and Dingtao · Shandong · Luoshan · Henan · Hunan Puppet and Shadow Theatre and Hengshan · Hunan · Langzhong and Nanbu · Sichuan · Qinghai
  3. 2011National ICH extension itemsIV-91 Shadow puppetry: Changli · Bairin Left Banner · Longjiang · Tongbai · Yunmeng and Tengchong shadow plays · Changli · Hebei · Bairin Left Banner · Inner Mongolia · Harbin · Heilongjiang · Tongbai · Henan · Yunmeng · Hubei · Tengchong · Yunnan
  4. 2011UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanityChinese shadow puppetry · 6.COM 13.3
  5. 2014National ICH extension itemsIV-91 Shadow puppetry: Laoting shadow play · Tongwei yingziqiang · Laoting · Hebei · Tongwei · Gansu
  6. 2021National ICH extension itemsIV-91 Shadow puppetry: Shahe shadow play · Jinzhou shadow play · Shahe · Xingtai · Hebei · Jinzhou · Liaoning