String puppets are beloved and adored by children and adults alike. Many cultures have used
string puppets,also called marionettes, for entertainment, artistic and even religious and political
purposes. In different areas of the world, string puppets vary greatly in their function, design and
artistic execution.
Ancient World
No matter what form of performances, puppet stage performances are required, as a segment of the front and back stage, and between audience and artist features, while providing the required dramatic performances set. Puppet shows early stage of development, the stage is more primitive, only pole, simple stage set up inexpensive cloth. Then gradually popular puppet theater, the stage has become more complex. The Theatre is about three to five meters wide, there are four pillars and the middle hall, it is the activities for the puppet stage, and its being surrounded on three sides emptiness in the lobby with a layer of diplomatic relations screen, performing artists used to cover the early and carved decorative corner shelf are relatively simple, but the latter part of the progressive development of more complex refined, with wood carving techniques and style of traditional Chinese architecture to create the stage.
In 19th century, the development of a hexagonal shed puppet stage, the left and right in front of the stage plus a slope, to attract the audience left and right sides, such hexagonal stage design, although not large, although the stage wide-field rate increase, but it makes the stage space and the rich visual effect more change. And such beautiful and rich decorative stage, although able to attract the audience and the sculpture is the art itself, but is expensive and difficult to transport, so not all of the troupe are affordable, so in Taiwan in the 1930s, there has been a billboard-style painting species Theatre. Decorative patterns such stage painted all the way to flat production, the cost of cheaper and easy to carry, and the stage effect is not lost to traditional stage. So far, the Theatre is still the main stage puppet troupes’ choice.
Chinese puppetry has a long history. It is noted for its many types of puppets and superb manipulative skill.It's a truly unique art combining opera, music, fine art and craftsmanship. It creates magic with a beam of light.
Puppet shows from various places had their own unique characteristics with strong local color in terms of figure modeling. String puppets from Quanzhou and Heyang, glove puppets from Zhangzhou, rod puppets from Guangdong, wire puppets from Chaozhou, shoulder-pole puppets from Wuqiao and large rod puppets from Sichuan were all finely and vividly crafted. They had all types of roles -- Sheng dan, jing and chou -- as in Chinese opera. Especially in the last few decades, Chinese puppets have been modeled using modern techniques. Generally speaking, the puppet design and modeling have reached a considerably high level.
Puppet show is a common form of performance art that you can find in many different cultures. Although its exact date of origin is hard to define, many historians believe that puppet show is developed with other drama forms around 2000 years ago independently in various ancient cultures.
In China, lots of ceramic or wooden puppets were found among relics from Shang (1,600~1,100BC), Zhou (1,100~221BC), and West Han (221BC~9AD) Dynasties. As a performance art, puppet show is believed to be “originated in Han dynasty, and thrived in Tang Dynasty”. In Three Kingdom Period, puppets were used in juggling performances; in Sui Dynasty, puppet show was introduced in storytelling.
Puppet show performance can be divided into two categories: one is puppet on the stage without see any puppeteer around it, another one which is puppet and puppeteer perform together on the stage. From the puppet and performance characteristics of the production process divided into 4 main puppet types:
String puppet
String puppets from QuanZhou and Heyang, called as “marionettes”, the image of a complete puppet, puppet body parts of the joints, joint activities should be made. Puppet’s head, body, waist, elbows, hands, legs, feet and other parts are tied with a hanging line, the line of a string are concentrated on the control board. The head is carved from camphor, Chinese linden or willow wood. Mechanisms contained in the head can make the five sensory organs move as the situation required. A puppet, generally have 16 lines, fewer lines at least have 8 lines, and some of the special puppet have 33 lines. Performances, the actors or puppeteer stand behind the stage with high position, stretched out both hands to manipulate the puppet show. String puppet shows are mostly performed in the open air without a curtain to conceal the puppeteers and spectators can see the performances from three sides of the stage.
Rod puppet
Rod puppets from GuangDong are wide spread in China. First carved wood for the puppet head, in the puppet head shape, can be made the live head, live nose, live mouth, live eyebrow, live chin and etc, and then manipulated by a main rod that is inserted through the neck and attached to the head, and two rods that control the hands. Stage for rod puppets is more often using black light theatre and production that use a light curtain. This is a special lighting effect, where the puppet is visible, but the puppeteer is not. Rod puppets can be used in a variety of theatrical situations too, including “white light” theatre (where the puppeteers can be seen), outdoor events, normal theatre performances and etc. Rod puppet do not required a lot of previous puppetry experience in order to be performed well. Rod puppets are also best used in small to medium venues, although if you create a very large rod puppet, they can also be used suitably in outdoor events.
Glove puppet
The glove puppet from ZhangZhou is also called “palm puppet” or “bag puppet” or “hands of play”. It is a simplest device. Carved out of camphor wood, the head contains of mechanisms which is used to control facial muscles. Performers just have to put his hand into the puppet clothes, use the fingers hold up the head and hand, direct manipulate the puppet. General performance like this glove puppet, a person can manipulated two puppets at the same time, one left one right. Index finger control the head puppet, and the other three fingers is control 1 hand of the puppet, and the thumb is used to control another hand, the thumb must control the same number of head rotation. Skilled puppeteers can make their puppets do highly difficult actions such as opening folding fan, brandishing a sword, changing clothes, fighting and jumping out of a window, all to be surprise of the audience. Glove puppet is about a foot in length or 20cm long and it is smallest of the other types, are most popular in Fujian’s Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. Stages for glove puppet shows are often examples of fine workmanship. Essentially, they are miniature place courtyards with richly decorated buildings featuring carved rafters and golden roofs.
Wire puppet
Wire puppets from ChaoZhou are wide spread in eastern Guangdong, western Fujian. It is about 1 to 1.5 feet high with painted heads made of clays, bodies carved out of tung wood, paper made hands and wooden feet. They are controlled by three metal rods: one main rod, and two side rods that are fixed with bamboo handles. The puppeteer either stands or sits behind the puppet when performing.
