China News Agency, Xinyang, Henan, January 8th, title: Chinese shadow puppetry has been "guarded" for 40 years. Artists: The "trilogy of light and shadow" talks about innovation and inheritance
Author Wang Yu Yang Jie
One curtain reflects the vast world, and the rap tells the joys and sorrows... As the Spring Festival approaches, Fang Dechun, an old folk artist, has gradually increased his shadow puppetry business. He has been engaged in shadow puppetry for more than 40 years. For the inheritance and development of Chinese shadow puppet art, he has been actively "going around" Find new ideas.
Chinese shadow puppetry is an ancient art form of drama singing. Opera characters made of cowhide appear on a curtain under the light or sunlight to express the plot and each character in the plot.
Fang Dechun, who is nearly 60 years old, is an excellent inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Xinyang City, Henan Province. The Pingqiao shadow puppetry he inherited has a long history. As early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many shadow puppet families, shadow puppet paintings, Sculpture and shadow puppet artists, the influence spread to many places in the three provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui.
To this day, many farmers are still keen to invite opera troupes to join in the fun during festivals, weddings, children's education and other happy events.
At this time, it is also the busiest time for Fang Dechun and his shadow play troupe.
"No matter how busy I am every year, I will perform charity performances for the old and the young." Fang Dechun said in an interview with reporters that in addition to being invited to participate in commercial performances, he often goes to nursing homes, elementary schools and other places for charity performances. The purpose is to let the older generation still see Shadow puppetry also allows young people to understand shadow puppetry.
This mode of "retaining old movie fans and influencing new movie fans" is what Fang Dechun calls "consolidating the foundation and cultivating talents", which is also his first step in innovating and inheriting shadow puppetry.
With the market in place, how to attract more fans with a good playbook has become Fang Dechun's second step in innovating and inheriting shadow puppetry.
"We often sing more than 30 operas such as "The General of the Yang Family" and "The Legend of the Thief", all of which are folk operas. It takes about three or four hours to sing a reunion opera, and we can sing for a month without repeating the same." Fang Dechun introduced that in recent years, while relaying and singing old plays, he created his own plays with modern and contemporary themes. He also copied the TV version of "Journey to the West" into shadow puppets for singing, which was deeply loved by children.
Xinyang, where Fang Dechun lives, is an old revolutionary base in the Dabie Mountains. For this reason, he traveled all over the local museums and libraries, visited descendants of revolutionary martyrs, read a lot of historical materials, and created a series of shadow puppets about revolutionary heroes.
In 2022, after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held, Fang Dechun immediately started to produce contemporary shadow puppets, and created shadow puppets with related themes in combination with the new look of the countryside, which were sung from village to household.
Behind the scenes of Fang Dechun's stage, many beautifully crafted characters are hung on hemp ropes, including lifelike "Heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", lifelike "Generals of the Yang Family", and "Peasants of the New Era".
In recent years, with the rise of Internet social platforms.
Fang Dechun also began to "embrace" the Internet constantly, starting his third step of innovating and inheriting shadow puppetry, and he has a lot of "fans".
Fang Dechun introduced that in his spare time, he will use various Internet social platforms to launch some small videos related to shadow puppetry, telling about the cultural charm of shadow puppetry.
Talking about his perseverance for more than 40 years, Fang Dechun called it a "coincidence".
"When I was seven or eight years old, I saw shadow puppets flying up and down for the first time, and I was fascinated. As long as I heard that shadow puppets were going to be performed, I would follow them to see them." Fang Dechun recalled that when he was 15 years old, he Formally worshiping local veteran shadow puppet artists as teachers, and began to systematically learn about production, performance and singing art.
Two years later, after learning something, he and several shadow puppet lovers formed a shadow puppet theater troupe, and since then embarked on the road of shadow puppetry.
Today, Fang Dechun has accepted 12 disciples to inherit shadow puppetry with him.
"Shadow puppetry is so charming. It sings the praises of truth, goodness and beauty, and is also humorous. I wholeheartedly want to pass it on. As long as someone is willing to learn, I will teach it without reservation. There is no charge, and I am not afraid of tiredness." Fang Dechun said. .
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