Folk Art 10: The Puppet Show

The Puppet Show (kuileixi) is better known as mu'ouxi (play of wooden dolls), in the country, which has its roots in remote times. It is said that King Mu of the Zhou (c.10th century B.C.) of oral history, on his way home from a big hunt on the Kunlun Mountain, saw a choral dance performed by Yanshi, a skilled carpenter, with wooden dolls made by himself. However, it was not until the Han Dynasty that the puppet show was mentioned as a full-fledged form of amusement. Still, that puts it at least 2,000 years back in Chinese history.

As in most other countries, three types of puppet shows are presented in China: the rod-top puppet, the marionette and the glove puppet. Of course, the first type is most popular in China. The puppet, generally less than a metre tall, is made with true-to-life features. It is raised overhead at the top of a stick by the puppeteer with one hand and manipulated by him with the other hand moving a pair of wire rods. This type of puppets generally do not show their feet.

One of the basic skills required of the operator is to be able to hold high the puppet, which weighs 2 to 3 kilograms, with one arm and to keep it either motionless or moving steadily on the same level as dictated by the scenario. Only on this basis may the puppet be convincing in its other dramatic actions.

The marionette appears on stage in full view of the audience. It is of a more complicated structure, with the head, shoulders, waist, hands and feet all jointed, movable and controlled by separate wires. During performance, it is operated from a concealed operating bridge high above the puppet.

The glove or hand puppet, rather like those in a Punch and Judy show, is also called "bag puppet" (budai mu'ou) in China. About 20 cm long, it is the smallest of the three types. Its dress is in the form of a small bag, from inside which the puppeteer's hand manipulates its postures and movements.

content by Mr.Du Feibao

Tangsancai refers to the tri-coloured glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A. D.), a painted earthenware which appeared in the wake of celadon. It is called "tri-coloured " because yellow, green and white were normally used, although some pieces are also in two or four colours. Developed on the basis of the green and brown glazed- pottery of the Han Dynasty, it represented a peak in the development of Chinese ceramics and was already well-known in the world in its time.

Unearthed tri-coloured Tangs are usually horses, camels, female figurines, dragon-head mugs, figurines of musicians and acrobats, and pillows. Of these, the three-coloured camels have won the greatest admiration. They are presented as bearing loads of silk or carrying musicians on their backs, their heads raised as if neighing; the red-bearded, blue-eyed drivers, clad in tunics of tight sleeves and hats with upturned brims, reproduce true-to-life images of men from Central Asia of that time as they trudged along the Silk Road to the tinkle of camel bells.

 

The tri-coloured glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty was developed some 1,300 years ago by drawing on the skills of Chinese painting and sculpture and employing on the bodies the techniques of clay-strip forming and incising. The lines thus produced were rugged and powerful. Then glazes of different colours were painted on and, while chemical reactions took place in the process of firing in the kiln, they dripped naturally so that the colours mingled with each other and formed smooth tones.

The tri-coloured Tang flourished during a rather short period of time (the 8th century) of the dynasty, when pottery pieces of this category were used by the aristocrats as funerary objects. So the finds today are limited in number and are considered to be rare treasures, valued for their brilliant colour and life-like shapes.

Imitations now produced in Luoyang, Xi'an and other cities of China are well received as tourist souvenirs because of their close resemblance to the authentic works.