What is Chinese Shadow Play？
2 min readChinese Shadow Play is also known as Chinese Shadow Puppets.Originated in the Han Dynasty，the play became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty.In the Ming Dynasty，there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone.In the Qing Dynasty，the shadow play came to maturity in Chengdu.They mainly existed in counties across Western Sichuan，with Chengdu as its centre.Folk artists usually ca1l it the“Chengdu shadow act under the leather lamplight.”Zhou Xun of the Qing Dynasty said，“The shadow play exists everywhere in China.However，the ingenious and exquisite workmanship in other places is not comparable to that of Chengdu.’
Chinese Shadow Play combines storytelling and entertainment，and demonstrates the style of harmony and exaggeration.In addition，it presents a unique artistic charm due to the fact that it has merged traditional forms of paper-cut，mural painting，stone carving，operas，music，etc.
The shadow puppets are brightly painted leather figures.Each puppet’s trunk，head，and limbs are separately carved but joined together by thread so that each puppet part can be manipulated by the operator to simulate human movements.A talented operator can make puppet figures appear to walk，dance，fight，nod or laugh.
The“stage”for the shadow play is usually a white cloth screen on which theshadows of puppet figures are projected.Operators are all under the stage，manipulating rods that support separate parts of each puppet figure.A traditionalpuppet figure has six or seven parts supported by two or three rods.Sometimes one operator can skillfully manipulate more than three puppets at the same time.
Today，puppets are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths.In Gansu province，it is accompanied by Daoqing music；while in Jilin，it shows to the accompaniment of Huanglong music form and some of the basis of modern opera.
