With seemingly simple props, it is actually a comprehensive art that includes modelling, carving, performance, and more.
Originating during the Western Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago, the Chinese shadow puppet theater art today is not only a national intangible cultural heritage item of China, but has also been acknowledged by UNESCO as a world cultural treasure. This is the earliest legend regarding China’s shadow puppet art. Then in the sunlight, the leaf’s shadow was cast onto the curtain, the sight of which greatly comforted the emperor. Seeing that the emperor missed Li so much, he tore a leaf from a broad-leaved tree and made a silhouette of the lady with it. The idea for this art is said to be conjured up by an aide of the emperor named Li Shaofeng. Two thousand years ago, it was on such a magical curtain that Emperor Wudi (156-87 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) enjoyed views of his beloved consort surnamed Li, who had passed away some time earlier. Everyone’s attention is glued to the curtain, and the small world is immersed in the shadow puppet art.
Both children and adults sit riveted to their seats amused by the fascinating legends or moving classic love & hate stories acted out by the shadow puppets. Audiences on the other side of the curtain see silhouettes flip around, walk or talk like real human figures. In a dimly-lit courtyard, as the overture begins to play, actors sitting behind a white curtain in front of a bright light begin to perform plays using small leather puppets mounted on the end of sticks.
0 kommentar(er)
