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Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Sheng (male), with separate headdress. Head and hands of puppet (part a) are carved from wood. Head and right hand painted pink beige. Character has a long nose, large ears, moveable eyes and painted designs on his face. The mouth is bright red, eyes are black-rimmed with red eyelashes. There are curvilinear motifs across his forehead and a comma shaped marking on the chin. His cheeks are covered by large semi-circles, that stretch from his nostrils to the sides of his face. All painted designs are done in red. The area around the ears and back of the head are painted black, imitating hair. Character is wearing a plaid cap, with metal buttons along the bottom edge, and secured at the back with a tie. Character is wearing a yellow robe, with extended sleeves that drape down. The robe has a left side opening, bordered in white and secured with ties, with a small right side slit. Collar bordered with a wavy green ribbon. Cuffs have a white ribbon trim, bordered in dark green, with red curvilinear motifs embroidered on them. Curvilinear and linear motifs across robe, done in dark green sequins and sparkly silver and pink ribbons. There is a light pink ribbon, with dark pink and green floral designs embroidered on it, two thirds of the way down the front and back of the robe. Large dragon design on centre front of robe, embroidered in stiff silver, pink, red and yellow thread. Character has a front opening red robe underneath the outer yellow robe. All edges are bordered with pale pink bands. Below that, character is wearing a plaid undergarment. Puppet is operated by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to his head, and two more attached to each hand. Back of puppet’s head has been cut out. Headdress (part b) made of cardboard, with a metal frame, covered in black fabric. Headdress consists of a square cap, that fits over the head, and a rectangle that attaches to the back. All edges of the square and rectangle are trimmed with a wavy green ribbon. Square cap has silver curvilinear attachments along the top and sides. The surfaces are entirely covered in sequins and beads. Sequins are silver, light blue, dark green, dark pink and light pink, and the beads are all silver. Numerous protruding, curled wires, with large silver, white and pink beads and pompoms, are along the top of the curvilinear attachments. Two yellow tassels hang down from either side of the cap. Rectangle at back of headdress has two wing-like attachments along the bottom edge. Wings are thin and trimmed with wavy green ribbon. Interior of headdress is painted silver. There are two plain ties on the back of the headdress.

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.

Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents the emperor, indicated by his yellow robes with a five toed dragon design. This kind of dragon design was only allowed to be worn by the emperor.