Puppet show (Tiezhi puppet show in Chaozhou)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Puppet Show (Tiezhi puppet show in Chaozhou)

Applicant: Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province

Item No.: 236

Project No.: Ⅳ - 92

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: Chaoan district cultural center of Chaozhou City (District Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)

Brief introduction of puppet show (Tiezhi puppet show in Chaozhou)

Applicant: Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province

Puppet opera, known as "puppet opera" and "puppet", is a form of opera in which puppets perform stories by artists.

China's puppet opera rose in the Han Dynasty, to the Tang Dynasty has a new development and improvement, can use puppets to perform song and dance drama. Song Dynasty is an important period for the development of puppet show in China, and the puppet production technology and manipulation skills are further mature. With the development of social economy, the puppet show of Ming Dynasty has been popular all over the country, and the puppet show of the economically developed southern provinces and regions is more prosperous, so there is a saying of "good puppet in the South". After the Qing Dynasty, puppet show entered its heyday. It was not only popular in a wide range, but also showed more and more vocal performances. There appeared western Liaoning puppet show, Zhangzhou puppet show, Quanzhou string puppet show, Jinjiang puppet show, Shaoyang puppet show, Gaozhou puppet show, Chaozhou Tiezhi puppet show, North Sichuan puppet show, Shiqian puppet show, yangstring puppet show, Taishun YaoFa puppet show There are many branches such as opera, Lingao puppet show and so on. As far as the form of performance is concerned, it can be summarized as five kinds: string puppet, stick head puppet, bag puppet, iron branch puppet and medicine hair puppet.

The art of puppet is so beautiful that it's amazing. In addition to the wonderful performances of the artists, the perfect puppet plastic arts and operating equipment are also an important aspect to attract the audience. Plastic arts focus on the carving and design of puppets. Generally speaking, the modeling of string puppets is relatively high, mostly about 2.2 feet. Key parts are decorated with lifting lines, up to more than 30, at least more than 10, such as stunt performances also need to add a number of auxiliary lifting lines. The level of puppet performers' various dance movements and martial arts skills completely depends on the artist's operating skills, which is the key to the level of puppet performance art. The head of the staff puppet is higher than the string puppet. Generally, the height of the puppet is about 3 feet. It is equipped with three operating lines, two of which pull hands, and one dominates the head and body. The puppet with the smallest shape, only about 7 inches, relies on the artist's two hands to hold up the performance. The operation skill is special, which is different from the string and stick puppet.

Since the founding of the people's Republic of China, puppet shows have become more colorful. In addition to performing traditional opera programs, they also perform drama, song and dance drama, series, and even advertisements. At the same time, puppet show is also facing fierce competition with other art forms. Traditional puppet shows contain the ideology, morality and aesthetic consciousness of the people of all regions and nationalities, which should be supported and protected.

Tiezhi puppet in Chaozhou, commonly known as "paper shadow play", is a rare variety of puppet art in China. It evolved from the shadow play introduced by immigrants from the Central Plains in the Southern Song Dynasty. After the Qing Dynasty, in order to meet the needs of the audience's visual appreciation, artists gradually removed the white paper covered on the stage, and changed the idols from the plane to the round body, so "binding grass as the body, binding paper as the hand, cutting wood as the foot, molding mud as the head" was called "round body paper shadow" at that time. After the artists continue to practice, gradually formed the idol stage performance. Chaozhou iron branch puppet idol is controlled by three iron branches connected at the back, which retains the characteristics of shadow puppet manipulation; the repertoire, performance action and music singing are the same as Chaozhou Opera; the puppet is controlled by three to four people in the backstage, sitting cross legged, with each person controlling one to two statues, and nine to twelve people singing and accompanying music behind; the basic performance techniques include pushing, pulling, lifting, shaking, etc According to the characters' trade and plot, they need to perform flying, entering the ground, igniting, archery, riding, fanning, rowing, martial arts and other movements, presenting unique manipulation skills.

However, with the change of people's art appreciation fashion, the performance market is shrinking day by day; most puppet classes are semi agricultural and semi artistic, and they are loose amateur art groups, so it is difficult to study and inherit puppet opera, especially some difficult performing skills are facing loss, so effective measures must be taken to protect and inherit them.

Chinese PinYin : Mu Ou Xi Chao Zhou Tie Zhi Mu Ou Xi