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Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents an evil character.

Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Hua Lian (painted face), with separate beard. Head and hands of puppet (part a) are carved from wood. Components painted pink beige. Character has a wide nose, moveable eyes and large ears. The mouth is bright red with white teeth, and the eyes are lined with black and yellow. The nose is painted green with red highlights. There is a yellow comma shaped marking on the chin and a red circle in the centre of the forehead, with another yellow character in it. The cheeks and forehead are painted green, the area around the ears and back of the head are light blue. He is wearing a plaid cap with a metal attachment, covered in red fabric, on the front centre. The character is wearing a red robe, with one large panel in the front, three back panels and two side panels. The front panel has ties along the left side, above the waist. Character is wearing a matching collar and there are added panels overtop of the shoulders and on the front panel, below the waist. All panels and the collar are trimmed with both or either gold and green wavy bands. Curvilinear motifs are done across entire surface of robe and collar in silver, green and gold sequins. Front panel has a central design of a dragon(?), done in yellow fabric and green sequins, with white plastic eyes, a red stuffed nose and white fabric fangs. The bottom edge of the dragon’s face has green fringe, and the top edge has a white mane. There is a plain yellow fabric patch on the back centre of the robe. Character is wearing a plaid undergarment, matching the cap. Puppet is controlled by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to his head, and two more attached to each hand. Eyes are operated by a wooden rod inside of the central bamboo rod. The back of the puppet's head has been cut out. Beard (part b) consists of three long black fibres attached to a wire covered with string. Shaped to fit over ears and below mouth of puppet.

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.