Chang'e Flies to the Moon

Introduction

A large rod-puppet play staged in 1981 by the Yangzhou puppet troupe, sung in jingge style instead of Peking opera

Chang'e Flies to the Moon is a signature play of Yangzhou rod puppetry, drawn from the myth of Chang'e rising to the palace of the moon. The Yangzhou puppet troupe began rehearsing this large mythological play in 1980, and in 1981 the Yangzhou Prefecture Puppet Troupe created and staged it, replacing the earlier Peking opera form with jingge, songs set to Peking opera melodies, which won praise from the Ministry of Culture and from puppetry experts. The climax is Chang'e's flight into the sky, for which the troupe built an extra-long control rod so that the performer could raise the puppet high overhead. Hua Meixia, who worked the Chang'e puppet, learned more than twenty water-sleeve moves from teachers of the local Yang opera company, and after she and the puppet maker reworked the figure it could also form orchid fingers, turn its palm and twist a handkerchief, earning her the name of the living Chang'e. Yangzhou rod puppetry borrows the body, eye, hand and step technique of Peking opera and uses local opera tunes and folk melodies, and it entered the second national intangible heritage list in 2008 (IV-92).

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