Puppet Show

Puppet Show is also called palm puppet show. The puppets are usually 1.0 chi (i.e.0.33 meter or 1.1 feet) tall, and the performers can control and perform them with a single palm or double to create the scenes of fighting between two puppets. Other vivid and acrobatic acts include shooting an arrow while riding a horse, climbing over a wall, spinning plates and balancing stacks of bowls on the head. The properties of this puppet show are small and exquisite, and can be put into a sack and taken to the countryside for performance. This is the origin of its name.

The Sack Puppet Troupe in Fujian has been abroad six times on performance tour in 19 countries and regions in the world, like Yugoslavia, Romania, France, Switzerland, and USA, and has received cordial applause and appraisal. In 1960,it entered for the Second International Puppet and Marionette Competition in Bucharest and won the First Excellent Performance Prize and a gold medal.

Ever since China Zhangzhou Puppet Show Troupe's establishment 30 years ago, Zhangzhou Puppet Show Troupe has put on performances all over the country. It has been to Beijing for 17 times to present the shows to Beijing people. Moreover, it has won many awards at domestic as well as international arts festivals. As a goodwill messenger, it has traveled abroad for about a dozen times. It has performed the shows and displayed the puppets in more than 20 countries and regions, including Romania, Poland, the former Russia, Yugoslav, Czech, Hungary, Mongolia, France, Swiss, Indonesia, Australia, the USA, Canada, the Great Britain, Portugal, Japan and Germany, etc. Foreign artists appraise its glove puppet shows as “the top-notch art in the world”, and Zhangzhou's puppet heads are renowned as the “oriental art treasure”.

With a gathering of talents, the Troupe has a strong lineup. There are 52 actors and staff members in the Troupe, among which 24 have been granted mid- and- high technical titles, and 15 are members of Chinese Theatre Association and Fujian Theatre Association. Some of them hold the leading posts in the artists associations at each level. Being a well-balanced organization, the Troupe consists of an art committee, and art creation group, and actor group, a band, a stage art team and a puppet-carving factory.

“Puppet Art in China”, “Puppet Show in South Fujian”, “Hand Puppet”, “Art in the Palm”, “The Eight Immortals Soaring over the Sea”, “Li Kui——the Black Cyclone”, “Yue Fei”, “Story of Capturing Demons” and “The Hunter with Oral Stunt”.

Publishes at : 07-10-04 15:54

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