Li Tianlu

Li Tianlu was born in Dadaocheng, Taipei, in 1910. At twenty-two, in 1932, he founded the Yiwanran glove-puppet troupe, performing in Taiwanese. Drawing on Peking opera music and staging and on the Zhangzhou puppet tradition, he developed the waijiang style. In later life he devoted himself to teaching, helped found the children's troupe Qiaowanran in 1988, and trained the French puppeteer who founded the Xiaowanran troupe in France. He acted in Dust in the Wind, and The Puppetmaster was based on his life. He received the National Folk Arts Heritage Award and the French Order of Arts and Letters, and died in Sanzhi in August 1998.