[Explanation] Recently, in the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe, Neijiang City, Sichuan Province, a series of wonderful medium-sized stick puppet shows were staged here.
Zizhong medium-sized stick puppet show is a national intangible cultural heritage.
Through unique and traditional performance skills, the manipulator turns the dull and blunt performance of the puppets into dexterous and expressive, injecting vitality and artistic appeal into the magical puppets.
Zizhong County Puppet Troupe was established in 1953 and has visited Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United States and other countries successively.
[Commentary] In the Tang Youmin Innovation Studio of Zizhong County Puppet Troupe, production technique consultant Tang Youmin is making puppets for the new play.
Tang Youmin, 58, is an old member of the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe.
He joined the troupe as an actor at the age of 14, and he knows more about the hardships of actors operating puppets and the importance of puppet making to actors.
Tang Youmin used hundreds of tools to carve and manufacture, turning the original dull puppets into lively, interesting and vivid, and reducing the weight of the puppets by changing materials and technological processes, thereby reducing the burden on the actors.
[Concurrent] Tang Youmin, Production Skill Consultant of Zizhong County Puppet Troupe
The original puppet was heavy because I am an actor and I know the hardships of an actor operating a puppet.
It's fine for someone else to dance on the stage as an actor, but after we dance, we have to apply our movements to the puppets, and that's difficult.
I lighten the weight of the puppet right on the process (material).
Our puppets used to be five or six pounds apiece, while my current puppets are only two to three pounds.
Because the heavier the puppet, the clunkier the performance.
[Explanation] Nowadays, the repertoire performed by Zizhong Puppet Troupe has developed from a single excerpt of Sichuan Opera to modern drama, singing and dancing, puppet sketches, cartoons, etc.
Actors also entered the campus, went to the grassroots level, and went overseas to let more people know about puppetry.
[Concurrent] Hu Hai, head of the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe
Just what the audience needs, we will produce different drama programs according to the needs of the audience, which can better meet the needs of the audience.
This is our innovation in this form of performance.
There is also innovation in our dissemination, transmission and inheritance.
We adopt the combination of static and dynamic, static is placed in museums and exhibition halls, and dynamic is on the stage and in the classroom. Going out, let more people see it, to inherit, to learn, to promote our traditional culture Puppetry.
[Explanation] Innovative performance forms also put forward higher requirements for the talents of the troupe. Hu Hai attaches great importance to the cultivation of young talents.
At present, there are 46 performers in the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe, of which nearly 20 are born in the 1990s.
Wang Xinyi, born in 1998, is a rising star cultivated by Hu Hai.
Wang Xinyi, who grew up watching puppet shows, hopes that more modern technologies can be applied to puppet production techniques in the future to improve production efficiency.
[Concurrent] Wang Xinyi, producer of Zizhong County Puppet Troupe
In the future, I think, our innovative way may be from production.
Now we are trying to innovate in the aspect of cultural and creative, and we can make cultural and creative products.
It's not like we are doing this one by one by hand.
Then mass production (puppets) can be carried out through modern equipment in the future, and then we design to production, and make them in one-stop.
[Commentary] Hu Hai said that he hopes that through the efforts of himself and his team, Zizhong puppets can be passed on in an orderly manner and move to a broader stage.
[Concurrent] Hu Hai, head of the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe
For the future development of the troupe, my greatest hope is that I hope that my skills can be passed on from generation to generation, so that Zizhong (puppet) can go further, go out of Sichuan, go to the world, and make Zizhong puppet famous at home and abroad.
He Luheng Gao Xinglong Chen Xuanbin reported by Sichuan Zizhong
Responsible editor: [Wang Kai]