Water Puppet Item Number: 3127/4 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Water puppet (mua roi nuoc) of a fairy character. Puppet carved from wood with a white face, carved facial features emphasized with paint, a crown of painted petals in gold, red and green, and long gold and red earrings. She wears a full length robe with decorated shoulders and layered skirts, with a wooden bow at front. The puppet’s arms are wood covered with wide sleeves of white polyester edged with coloured sequins. They are lifted by pulling on a thin plastic tube that emerges from the base.

History Of Use

Used in water puppet performances of "Dance of the Princesses and Fairies", or "Dancing Tune in Ly Dynasty". Water puppets (mua roi nuoc / múa rối nước) are used in an unique form of rod puppetry found only in Vietnam. The stage is an enclosed pool of water, smoke and firecrackers burst over the surface and musicians play instruments in time to the puppets’ actions. In Vietnamese water puppetry, there are a series of short sequences or skits rather than a singular narrative. The skits are full of humour and satire and depict the folklore and culture, everyday lives, and comic misadventures of rural people, who work on the river and in the rice-paddy fields. There are also sequences that depict mythological characters, creatures, and tales, such as The Dance of the Princesses and Fairies and the Fabulous Unicorns (Ky Lan) Playing with a Ball (from Shadows, Strings & Other Things, 2019).

Narrative

Collected in 1994, in Ho Chi Minh City, by Jason Schoonover and Susan Hattori. The puppets were collected from The Traditional Water Puppetry Troupe, operating out of the Historical Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.