Three people work together to control Michael Jackson's shadow puppet

　　Recently, a video of a shadow puppet show performing the classic dance moves of American pop music star Michael Jackson went viral on the Internet.

In the video, accompanied by dynamic music, Michael Jackson's shadow puppet performs classic moonwalks and mechanical dances under the control of several artists.

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that the artists in the video are Xue Hongquan, the inheritor of shadow puppets, an intangible cultural heritage of Shaanxi Province, and his two apprentices.

　　Use shadow puppets to interpret Michael Jackson's dance moves

　　Shadow puppetry, also known as "lantern shadow play", is a kind of folk drama in which silhouettes of characters made of animal skins or cardboard are used to perform stories. Huazhou District, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province is one of the important sources of shadow puppetry art.

In 2006, shadow puppetry was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection lists.

　　Recently, a unique shadow puppet "Resurrection Mike" was performed in the Shadow Puppet Theater of Shaohuashan International Shadow Puppet Expo Park in Huazhou District.

On the curtain, a shadow puppet in the image of Michael Jackson dances nimbly, and classic movements such as "mechanical dance" and "moonwalk" are presented on the curtain under the operation of shadow puppet artists.

Behind the scenes, Xue Hongquan and his two apprentices worked in perfect coordination and skillfully waved the joystick, and their performances often attracted applause from the audience.

The performance video went viral on the Internet, attracting the attention and likes of many netizens.

　　Xue Hongquan told a reporter from Beiqing Daily that the first official performance of this play was on a CCTV program in 2016.

At that time, Xue Hongquan, a shadow puppet producer, led his team to pass the audition for a CCTV program. The judges were amazed by their shadow puppet performance. One of the judges asked him if he could use other ways to show shadow puppetry, such as using Michael Jackson's dance incorporated?

　　Because he happened to be giving lectures to some young people during that time, and in the process of communicating with young people, he hoped to innovate and develop shadow puppetry.

After some creation, the shadow puppet work "Resurrection Mike" was formed.

In 2016, on a CCTV program, he used shadow puppets to perform Michael Jackson's classic dance moves for the first time. Once performed, it aroused the admiration of many people.

　　Xue Hongquan told a Beijing Youth Daily reporter that "Resurrection Mike" is different from traditional shadow puppet shows and has many innovations. "Its shadow puppet characters are more exquisitely designed to better interpret Michael Jackson's dance moves such as sliding steps, hip thrusts and For actions such as knee-raising, we have decomposed more joints and set up more joysticks for Michael Jackson’s shadow puppet character. Traditional shadow puppet characters generally only have three joysticks, and the joysticks of Michael Jackson’s shadow puppet character have reached 6."

　　In order to make the movements of the shadow puppet characters more vivid when performing, Xue Hongquan first cut cardboard into the shape of a villain, assembled it for debugging, and then determined the accurate joint connections.

"We decomposed the joints of the Michael Jackson villain very finely, closer to the bones and joints of a real person." Only Michael Jackson's feet, Xue Hongquan and the others decomposed them into three parts: the ankle joint, the metacarpal joint and the toes.

They also used steel wires to connect the soles of the feet and the toes, making Michael Jackson's shoes deform when stepped on.

In addition, they also detached Michael Jackson's hat, which can be taken off and thrown away, or it can fly back.

“Details are handled more delicately and the performances are more vivid.”

　　The difficulty of operating shadow puppets has increased and shadowless light sources are being explored

　　Xue Hongquan told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that more sophisticated and sophisticated characters will increase the difficulty of operation for actors.

The character that originally only required one person to operate now requires the cooperation of three people. Once one person makes a mistake, the entire look will be messed up.

"Michael Jackson's dance movements have a strong sense of power and rhythm, which requires our shadow puppet actors to move neatly and neatly, not sloppily, and with sufficient intensity." In order to achieve the ideal performance effect, they did not know how many times they rehearsed. During rehearsals, some actors had blood blisters on their hands.

　　Xue Hongquan said that in addition to Michael Jackson, they are now inviting some experts to create a large-scale play. This play is different from the traditional shadow puppet show, but uses digital lighting for projection, eliminating the shadow of the joystick and actors on the curtain, making the picture more vivid. Much cleaner.

"The light we are using now is a shadowless light source. We use many light tubes to combine and arrange them to eliminate the shadow of the joystick, so that the audience cannot see the shadow of the joystick and the actors on the curtain, achieving the same clean effect as watching cartoons. .”

　　Xue Hongquan said frankly that the shadowless light source will increase the difficulty of the actor's operation. "The shadowless light source requires the actor's shadow puppet to be attached to the curtain at all times. If the shadow puppet leaves the curtain slightly, the shadow will be empty or even invisible." This requires the actors to perform very accurate and smooth movements. If the shadow puppets are to be true to their shadows, they must be close to the curtain. The performance is very difficult."

　　Xue Hongquan said that intangible cultural heritage must be inherited and developed

　　A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily noticed that Xue Hongquan’s shadow puppetry also attracted a lot of discussion and likes on the Internet.

Some netizens said that "classic cultural heritage has caught up with fashion", while others believed that "this form is good, it is traditional and refreshing, and young people like to watch it."

　　Xue Hongquan told the Beiqing Daily reporter that in his opinion, today's intangible cultural heritage projects must have been a fashion in their respective eras, so that they can be passed down through thousands of years.

"Works must meet the needs and appreciation levels of ordinary people to survive. Intangible cultural heritage must be inherited and developed and integrated into modern life."

　　Regarding Xue Hongquan’s shadow puppetry, Liang Sijuan, director of the Huazhou District Intangible Cultural Heritage Center in Weinan City, Shaanxi Province, told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that the shadow puppetry performed by Xue Hongquan’s team is based on the traditional shadow puppetry in the Huazhou area and incorporates some modern elements to innovate the interpretation of shadow puppetry. This method has revitalized traditional culture. The novel performance form is more popular with the younger generation of audiences, and has produced a good social response, allowing more people to understand shadow puppetry. "For example, "Resurrection Mike" brought Michael Jackson’s classic dance moves are cleverly combined with traditional culture. The ballet-dancing Xi’er in “Dance to Welcome the Spring” made everyone discover that shadow puppetry can also be danced in ballet, and “Silk Road Style” showed the Dunhuang style and sleeve-flipping of traditional Chinese aesthetics.”

　　Text/Reporter Li Tiezhu and intern Jin Jing

　　Coordinator/Jiang Shuo