Chinese Traditional Folk Art-Shadow Puppet

Shadow puppet, as one of the Chinese traditional folk art, is a handicraft artwork created by processing cattle hide, donkey hide, or sheepskin into a translucent pelt, then painting it with colors before it is baked dry inside a brick oven, and use for shadow play, an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment using opaque, often articulated figures in front of an illuminated backdrop to create the illusion of moving images.
The shadow puppet has a long history in China. It estimated that the first born in the shadow of the Western Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, also known as sheep drama, commonly known as the head drama, shadow play. Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming Dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. In the 13th century, the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to other Southeastern Asian countries.
Shadow play needs a high technology, and requests the artists who should have the flexible fingers. It is not only a need a skillful hand, but need the artists to speak, play, sing. The screen for playing shadow is made of white gauze. The shadow puppet should close to the screen when performance is going. It always makes the audience dazzle.
It is said that the shadow began to spread to Europe from the middle of the eighteenth century, and in 1767, the French missionaries took the China’s shadow back to France, and performed in Paris, Marseille.
The shadow play divided into many styles, such as Tangshang shadow play, Jinan shadow play, Xiaoyi shadow play, Fuzhou shadow play, Hanning shadow play, Jianghan shadow play, Lufeng shadow play, Huaxian shadow play and so on. Each kind of shadow play has its own feature, so if you like the shadow play, you should know more and choose the play which you like.

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