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Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents a stylish young lady.

Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Dan (lady), with separate headdress. Head and hands of puppet (part a) are carved from wood. Head painted pink beige. The puppet’s body is formed by a reed cage. Character has a wide nose, moveable eyes and large ears. Mouth is painted red, cheeks are rosy. Eyes are black-rimmed, eyebrows are painted black and thin. Long sideburns painted on either side of her face. She has black hair pulled into a top bun and low ponytail. The ponytail is secured with a red tie. Between the bun and the ponytail is a dark blue ribbon, with a gold zigzag through the centre, with pink sequins. A matching headband is across her forehead. She has silver and pink beaded earrings and flowers tucked behind her ears. The character is wearing a pink jacket, with extended gauze-like sleeves that drape down. Floral motifs around cuffs and on front centre of jacket, done in light blue, dark pink and white sequins. Overtop jacket, character is wearing a bright green collar with a front opening, secured with ties. It has an elaborate beaded fringe along the bottom edge, with tiers of diamonds and two strands hanging from each diamond point. Diamonds are done in lilac, beads connecting diamonds are pink, and the strands are silver, red and light green. Neckline of collar trimmed with a wavy dark green ribbon, the bottom edge is trimmed with wavy dark green and red ribbons. Linear and floral motifs across collar, done in silver, light blue and dark pink. The jacket is belted at the waist, securing at the back with velcro. Edges of pink belt are trimmed with a wavy dark green ribbon. Belt is covered with floral motifs, made with stiff, glittery thread and sequins. Done in silver, gold, dark brown, red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple. Hanging from the belt are three panels. All are pink, trimmed with wavy dark green ribbons, and covered in floral and curvilinear motifs. Floral motifs are done in white, light blue and dark pink sequins, curvilinear motifs are done in red. The bottom edges of all the panels have white, blue and dark pink fringe. Puppet is wearing an additional panel on her back that hangs below the jacket. It is secured with a tie around the waist, underneath the belt. Central floral motif done in dark pink, silver and light blue sequins. Fringe along all edges, done in dark green, yellow, pink and red. Puppet is operated by three rods- one large bamboo rod attached to the reed cage, and two more, made of bamboo and metal, attached to each hand. Eyes are operated by a wooden rod inside of the central bamboo rod. Headdress (part b) is semi-circular and rests on top of the puppet’s head. It is made of cardboard, with a metal frame, and covered in light green fabric. Edges of headdress are trimmed with flower shaped sequins. Along the top and sides are groupings of protruding wires, covered in green fabric and circular and flower shaped sequins. Sequins are pink, gold, silver and light blue. In between the wire groupings, and overtop of the central wire grouping, are three large, pink tulle-like flowers. Back of headdress is undecorated and covered in light blue fabric. There are two plain ties on either end 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.