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Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Wu Sheng (marital male), with separate headdress. Head, torso and hands of puppet (part a) are carved from wood. Head and torso painted pink beige. Character has a wide nose, large ears and moveable eyes and mouth. The mouth is painted bright red with white teeth. Eyes are black-rimmed, eyebrows are painted black with sharp spikes in the middle. Back of head and area around ears painted black, imitating hair. He is wearing a plaid cap with metal buttons along the bottom edge. Long, black strands of hair are attached to the top of the cap. The character is wearing a sleeveless blue robe, with a front centre opening, secured with metal buttons, and two side slits. Yellow wavy ribbon trims arm holes and bottom edge, pink wavy ribbon trims collar. Curvilinear and geometric motifs around collar, arm holes and centre opening are done in silver and pink sequins. There are circular characters on either side of the front opening, and one on the centre back, done in gold sequins. The character is wearing a full sleeved plaid undergarment, matching the cap, beneath the robe. Puppet is operated by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to torso, and two more attached to each hand. Eyes and mouth are operated by a wooden rod inside of the central bamboo rod. Back of puppet’s head has been cut out and re-attached. Headdress (part b) is made of cardboard, with a metal frame, and is covered in painted fabric. Headdress consists of a tiara-like headband and cap. The tiara-like section has two tiers. The back tier is covered in green painted fabric, has a gently scalloped top edge trimmed with a wavy pink ribbon, and curvilinear attachments on either side. One yellow tassel hangs from the left curvilinear attachment. Paper, covered in written characters, attached to tassel. The front tier is covered in pink painted fabric and has triangular protrusions along the top edge, trimmed with a wavy dark pink ribbon. Both tiers are covered in sequins, beads and metal attachments. Sequins are coloured silver, dark blue, green, gold and red. Beads are coloured white and silver. Numerous protruding, curled wires with large light and dark pink pompons, are across the top of the front and back tiers. Cap portion of headdress is covered in light blue fabric with triangular protrusions all along the top edge. Painted green paper trims edges of protrusions. Same wire and pompom decorations are attached to the tips of the triangular protrusions. Back of cap has a green painted fabric covered section, trimmed with a wavy gold ribbon. Below it is a semi-circular attachment, covered in green fabric. It has a wavy black ribbon trim, red sequins and large silver buttons. The inner rim of the headdress is covered in red fabric, there are two plain ties on either end.

Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents a young officer or general.

History Of Use

The celebrated rod puppets of the Guangdong Province on the south coast of China have a long history. They became popular during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Generally referred to as ‘ghost opera’ (qui-a-xi), this form of rod puppetry shares many characteristics with Cantonese Opera. There are the four standard categories of performer: male (sang/sheng), female (daan/dan), clown (cau/chou) and painted faces (zing/jing), often reserved for martial or fighting characters. They wear elaborately embroidered costumes and perform classical Chinese legends and histories, with dramatic and stylized acrobatics, movements, voices and gestures. The likeness of the rod puppets to their human counterparts is enhanced further by the clever mechanisms that move the eyes and mouth. Like all forms of Asian theatre and puppetry, music is also an essential part of the performance: the accompanying orchestra generally consists of gongs, drums, violins and reed instruments. Almost every performance of puppet theatre in Guangdong is part of religious festivities. The stage is built opposite a temple or shrine. A performance usually starts with ritual blessings to bring peace and prosperity to the local community.