[Live sound] Chen Jintao, inheritor of Cantonese opera with hand-held puppets in Guangdong

  In fact, if you want to step out of the steps of Huadan, the water sleeves of this Huadan are very important. Once you go up and down, the fan show is actually the same action.

  [Explanation] With a curling gait and flying sleeves, the master who is demonstrating the puppet show is Chen Jintao, the inheritor of Cantonese opera with hand-held puppets in Guangdong.

In 1983, he established the "Hong Kong Huashan Traditional Puppet Cantonese Opera Troupe" to perform hand-supported puppet Cantonese opera for traditional activities such as ceremonies and temple consecration.

Different from the Cantonese opera performed by real people, the puppet performers need to stand behind a curtain more than one meter high and manipulate the puppets to perform. The audience can only see the puppets but not the actors. To be vivid and lifelike.

  [Live sound] Chen Jintao, inheritor of Cantonese opera with hand-held puppets in Guangdong

  When you make a puppet, you control your steps until you look like a puppet, and when you are a woman, you step out of the way of a woman.

This is going to be a big move, a mighty look.

In fact, the head (of the puppet) has to control it to move. If you just walk straight like this, you won't be able to control its head.

These two bamboos are called "mobile phone", and "mobile phone" is to control the opponent.

One hand controls two sticks and the other grabs the neck (of the puppet).

  [Explanation] Guangdong hand-held puppet show is one of the ancient operas. It was popular in the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong, Macau and other places. Residents in coastal areas believe that puppet shows can exorcise evil spirits. safe all year.

In the 1920s, there were many puppet troupes in Hong Kong.

After World War II, most of the puppet troupes graduated, and it was not until 1949 that troupes such as "Shengpingle" and "Victory Year" began to appear.

Chen Jintao introduced that the early puppet show was closely related to Cantonese opera, and for this reason, Cantonese actors called the puppet class "master class". The opera pays attention to the six major moves of blowing, hitting, playing, singing, doing and writing.

  [Concurrent] Chen Jintao, inheritor of Cantonese opera with hand-held puppets in Guangdong

  "Blowing" means using a suona, or a throat pipe, a horizontal flute or a straight flute. These are called "fluffing".

"Playing" means palm board, gongs and hairpins, and bamboo sticks, which is called "playing".

"Playing" means dulcimer is called "playing", and "singing" is singing.

I sang the play "A Sword of Loyalty" just now, the male lead.

Our puppets still have one thing to "do", so we hold it up to "do" (perform).

To "compose" is to write.

It means that you compose a song, or write an article, and the article is called "compose".

  [Explanation] After more than half a century in the industry, Chen Jintao is already a veteran in the industry, and he has taught and apprentices countless times. However, when he talks about his opportunity to enter the industry, it stems from a childhood experience of "stealing teachers".

  [Concurrent] Chen Jintao, inheritor of Cantonese opera with hand-held puppets in Guangdong

  At that time, I should have been very young, at the age of ten or eight, and I took a bus to go to the Guangzhou Cultural Park to watch the puppet show.

If you don't know him, how can you learn something from him? You can only "steal", stealing a teacher. In fact, I have never worshipped a teacher in my life.

All were stolen.

For example, what is the music and sequence, how is the process, and how the gongs and hairpins are played, all of which are in my head, because we didn’t have a tape recorder at that time, and we all relied on memory at that time, so it was very hard You can learn something, but (precisely because of) what you learn so hard, it will always be engraved in your mind.

  [Explanation] Today, Chen Jintao, who is over seventy years old, is still in high spirits, insists on leading the troupe to perform in various places, and occasionally appears in cultural promotion activities.

Decades ago, he settled in Hong Kong from Zhongshan, Guangdong, and brought this intangible cultural heritage technique to the banks of the Hong Kong River again.

At present, he is also happy to see traditional culture exchange and mutual learning between Guangdong and Hong Kong and continue to be passed on.

  Reporter Fan Siyi reports from Hong Kong

Responsible editor: [Wang Shanshan]