A popular heritage passed down for thousands of years, watch a Quanzhou puppet show - all kinds of life dance on your fingertips

I have heard you say that it is worth visiting a place I have never been to before. Because of an invitation from a friend, I quickly bought a ticket for a trip that was not in my itinerary and started my three-day trip to Quanzhou. I don’t know anything about Quanzhou. I have seen a promotional video and read a few travel notes. I vaguely remember Kaiyuan Temple, West Street, and a stone statue of Lao Tzu. This should be what I want to see. place, I planned it in the car. But when I stepped out of the train station, I felt that God was unkind to the rain, and I felt a little depressed. It seemed like it had been moldy for a few days. After a few days of playing, I have a deep memory of the string puppet show I saw here. I kept taking photos at the time, and I was also impressed by the skills and singing skills of the live performers, even though I knew nothing about the singing content of Hokkien.

Speaking of puppet shows, I went to check them out. It can be said that there are many types of puppet shows, and they are also distributed according to the status of settlements. Quanzhou string puppet show is one of the more representative categories. Others include Jinjiang bag puppet show, Zhangzhou bag puppet show, Liaoxi puppet show, Lingao puppet show, Shaoyang puppet show, Gaozhou puppet show, and Chaozhou iron branch puppet show. There are several places including Northern Sichuan Puppet Show, Shiqian Puppet Show, Heyang String Puppet Show, and Taishun Yaofa Puppet Show.

Puppet show was called "puppet show" and "puppet son" in ancient times. Quanzhou's string puppet show was called "suspended silk puppet" in ancient times, also known as "silk play". Now it is called string puppet show, and it is also commonly known as Jiali among the people. The traditional drama mainly spread in southern Fujian, as one of the ancient traditional puppet shows, has a long history. The common view is: "it originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty". It has gone through a long development process from being a religious drama at first to gradually becoming a kind of drama with drama and rap.

During the string puppet show, the artist pulls the puppet with ten fingers to perform different movements, and precisely controls the puppet's body, limbs, and head through the thin strings in his hand. There are also clothes and props used. If you observe carefully, it should not be difficult to find that there are many such thin lines densely packed. There are 16 basic lines, and more than 30 when complicated, including 2 head nail lines, 1 chest line, 1 back line, and hand lines. Only with 10 lines and 2 foot lines can the puppet complete movements such as pitching, bowing, and shaking hands.

It feels like it takes a long time just to distinguish the control points of each wire, not to mention skillfully operating the puppet to perform various actions in a short period of time. It is really "one minute on stage; ten years off stage". To perform this well, it is not as simple as it sounds. It seems simple to raise your head, stamp your feet and turn around, but they don't know how many times they have practiced behind the scenes.

The performers I saw this time were all young people. I heard from the deputy director of the art troupe that they all particularly like puppetry performances, and they all practiced very hard and tried their best. We will do our best to inherit this thousands-year-old folk art.

Puppet theater is divided into four major categories: Sheng, Dan, Bei (Jing), and Za. The ancient city has "four beauties". The Puppet Troupe is also called the "Simei Troupe". Nowadays, the cloth curtains of the ancient Quanzhou string puppet theater have the couplets of "traveling thousands of miles in an instant, accomplishing ancient and modern undertakings in one night" and the horizontal inscriptions of "the four beauties of the inner curtain". Of course, we can also see such couplets here.

In the early years of Quanzhou, entertainment life was relatively scarce. Whenever a stage was set up in the streets, it would always attract a large number of people, old and young, to watch. The puppet show was famous for its humorous and funny style and its artists. His outstanding skills are very popular among the people.

Now, the neighbors at home are already familiar with this art, and more and more tourists come from all the way to see the puppetry. At the former site of the Puppet Theater in Tongzheng Lane, Quanzhou, From the old people with thick eyebrows and white hair to the young children learning to talk, it is not difficult to see people's love for puppetry from the smiling faces.

Starting from July 1, 2016, there will be a one-hour charity performance at the Tongzheng Lane Puppet Theater from 4 to 5 pm every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Before the performance, the Quanzhou Puppet Theater The deputy leader will introduce everyone to the splendid culture of the ancient city of Quanzhou.

For example, talking about the legend of Kaiyuan Temple and so on will give visitors to Quanzhou a deeper understanding of Quanzhou's culture. The singing of the puppet show is all in Hokkien, so foreign tourists naturally cannot understand it. Fortunately, there are subtitles next to the stage, but it still has the flavor of dialect. If it is switched to Mandarin, it will feel less. There are several charity performances here, such as "The Little Monk Descends the Mountain", "Zhong Kui Catching Ghosts", "Monkey Taming", etc. Although the theater is not very big, the seats are basically full.

In addition, the Quanzhou string puppet show "Four Generals on the Stage" appeared on the 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony stage, the United Nations gala stage, CCTV channel, and many other places. With such a long history of folk performing arts.

The production of puppets can be said to be very delicate. It is said that the puppets of the Quanzhou Puppet Troupe are all made by a master. Quanzhou puppets generally have this process: blanking, shaping, rough carving, fine carving. Carving, mounting paper, polishing, filling gaps, brushing mud, pastels, opening the face, covering with wax...it can be said that there are many steps to create a vivid puppet.

It seems that making a puppet requires a long time of work and patience, as well as the producer's skills. Coupled with the skillful operation of the performers and the behind-the-scenes singing and soundtrack team, even though it is a small stage and only a few minutes of performance, it requires all kinds of efforts behind the scenes to support it. It is also a great undertaking to inherit for more than a thousand years.

Time: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 5 pm

Location: At Tongzheng Lane Puppet Theater (remember to go in advance, otherwise you have to stand to watch)