Urumqi, March 3 (Zhongxin Net) -- A few feet of cloth, a lamp, a cowhide man, a dialect singing voice, staging all things in the world, mobilizing thousands of troops and thousands of horses, this is the world of shadow puppets.

Shadow puppetry, also known as shadow play and lamp play, is a kind of folk drama that uses animal skin or cardboard as silhouettes to perform stories. Behind a white curtain, the artist manipulates the shadow puppet man while telling the story in detail with popular local tunes.

In China, shadow puppet theater is spread all over the country, and there are many factions, including Tangshan shadow puppet theater, southern Hebei shadow puppet theater, and Chinese old dialect that have become national intangible cultural heritage.

Xinjiang shadow puppet theater has maintained the early appearance of China's shadow puppet theater more, with rough and simple shapes, concise lines, and a combination of carving and painting, fully reflecting the modeling characteristics of the northwest region, and the stories and singing voices fully reflect the regional characteristics of Xinjiang's multi-ethnic settlement.

Shadow puppet characters with Xinjiang characteristics come to life. Photo courtesy of interviewee

The inheritors add Xinjiang flavor to the "shadow of China"

Shadow people sit and walk, flip and kick, lift robes and flick sleeves... Zhu Xingui, the autonomous region-level non-genetic inheritor behind the white curtain, held a wooden pole, and every time his fingers moved, the shadow image also jumped.

Zhu Xingui was born in a Liyuan family and was taught by his father Zhu Renyi. As the representative inheritor of Xinjiang shadow puppet theater, Zhu Xingui has insisted on shadow puppet performance for more than 20 years.

"When I was a child, I grew up in my father's shadow puppet troupe, often sitting on a donkey cart carrying shadow boxes, and following my father's troupe to perform in villages and villages, and it was at that time that I formed a deep fate with shadow puppets." Zhu Xingui said.

In addition to hearing and seeing, "Sangu Maolu" was a common thing for Zhu Xingui during his school years. When I heard where there were shadow puppet experts, I immediately set out and visited him five times to seek art. Shaanxi Weinan quenched singing, Hubei Yunmeng practice filmmaker. Soon, Zhu Xingui's shadow puppets became more and more handy, and he became an authentic shadow puppet artist.

Zhu Xingui said that shadow puppet art integrates screenwriters, directors and actors, and can pick signs, sing Qin dialects, and write scripts. Shadow puppets can be passed down for thousands of years and blossom in different places, which is inseparable from innovation.

In Zhu Xingui's shadow puppet studio, the reporter saw that all kinds of brightly colored shadow puppets were hung above the ceiling and on the surrounding walls. One row was very special, Zhu Xingui took them off the hanging rope, fixed his eyes, this shadow with a Uyghur flower hat, long braids, the image of Xinjiang girls came to life.

He told reporters that using traditional folk art shadow puppet theater as the carrier, modern elements and Xinjiang's local cultural characteristics are integrated into it for creation, which is more loved by the local people. In the series of shadow puppets, there are also yurts, horses, girls in Edles silk costumes, and Uyghur uncles with figure-eight beards.

In recent years, Zhu Xingui has created many shadow puppet plays with Xinjiang themes, such as "The Story of Avanti", "Lin Zexu in Changji", "Love for Ashri" and other plays. The shadow puppet jumps on the black walking horse, plays the dongbula...

"Post-00s" also have intangible cultural heritage "keeping" artists

When it comes to shadow puppet inheritance, Xinjiang has a more vivid blood. In Yongfeng Town, at the foot of Nanshan Mountain in Urumqi County, there is a "shadow puppet micro group". The micro-group is composed of 8 post-"00" members, all of whom are college students, who usually use their spare time to perform intangible cultural heritage shadow puppet crafts. Zhao Bowen is one of them, when she first learned, she thought that controlling shadow puppets was a simple thing, but she didn't expect that just learning a few joysticks would take a week. "In order to bring the shadow puppet character to life, the practice is repeated every day, and the hands are ground with cocoons."

Nowadays, the college students of the shadow puppet group have become "intangible cultural heritage stars", and every holiday, the community and shopping malls will invite them to perform. "In addition to the income from commercial performances, we use it to buy costumes, shadow puppets, etc., and more for charity performances." Zhao Bowen said.

The primary school students of Urumqi Primary School 76 performed shadow puppets without distinction. In 2017, under the leadership of Yang Shan, the inheritor of Urumqi's non-genetic heritage, the school established a shadow puppet club. In order to let more children understand and learn shadow puppets scientifically and systematically, Yang Shan and several art teachers in the school compiled shadow puppet course teaching materials, including shadow puppet prop production, shadow puppet performances and other content.

Some of the students are good at making shadow puppet figures, and some have a crisp singing voice. "It was great that I was able to independently make shadow puppets of Avanti and Monkey King and watch my own shadow puppets come to life in front of the curtain." Student Wang Yi said.

Yang Shan said that over the years, thousands of children in 76 Primary School have learned shadow puppet art, and in 2021, the school was also rated as the inheritance base of Xinjiang's traditional crafts (shadow puppet production and performance). Here, every child becomes the inheritor of shadow puppetry.

Old skills urgently need to "hold hands" with new trends

Although there are many people who love shadow puppets and learn shadow puppets, there are very few artists who are really willing to pass on shadow puppet skills. Zhu Xingui said that the production and performance artists are now entering an advanced age, and this exquisite skill is about to be lost. Nowadays, due to its complicated and wonderful production process, high performance skills requirements, and low economic income, few young people actively choose to use shadow puppets as a career.

Zhu Xingui said that if intangible cultural heritage can become a profession, it will attract more people to devote themselves to the cause of intangible cultural heritage. "In the case of shadow puppets, learning is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it's hard to go all out without financial resources. Now, many inheritors set up their training places at home, but the aroma of wine is also afraid of the depth of the 'alley', and the skills are trapped in a certain circle, and they are destined to be unable to make a name. ”

The good thing is that in recent years, shadow puppets have found new windows. Young post-90s designer Zhang Jielu combines jewelry with Chinese intangible cultural heritage shadow puppets, which shine at overseas fashion weeks. Yang Xiaomeng, a student of the College of Art and Design of Hubei University of Technology, designed the work "Shadow Earrings, Fragrant Shadow Car Hanging, Tiger and Tiger Life", which combines shadow puppet art with jewelry and hanging ornaments to design unique car hangers and earrings. "This has also brought great inspiration to the development of Xinjiang shadow puppet culture and creativity."

Zhu Xingui suggested that inheritance should be combined with modern elements, develop works with regional characteristics and a sense of the times, and let ancient skills be in line with the trend, and I believe that China will blow a "national tide" wind. (End)