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Iconographic Meaning

Puppet is in a commoner's costume. He is difficult to identify due to his unique facial painting. He could be a clown with a slightly higher class position, ex. the dumb rich boy.

Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Sheng (male). Head and hands are carved from wood. Components painted pink beige. Character has a small nose, large ears and painted designs on his face. The mouth is bright red, eyes are black-rimmed with black and red eyelashes. Eyebrows are black and red, curling at their ends. Curvilinear motifs across forehead and comma shaped marking on the chin. All painted designs done in red and black. Character has a black spiky moustache and the area around the ears and back of the head are painted black, imitating hair. The character is wearing a sleeveless dark pink robe, overtop of a plaid undergarment. The robe has a front opening, secured with ties, and two small side slits. Metal button attached to collar. Floral motifs embroidered across robe. Wavy turquoise ribbon, with yellow square motif through middle, borders all robe edges. Bottom edge, side slits and centre opening trimmed with additional wavy gold ribbon that has black fibre woven through it. Silver and pink sequins are along the left side of the centre opening. The puppet's head is hollow. Rim of hollow opening is unpainted. Puppet is operated by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to his head, and two more are attached to each hand. Back of puppet’s head has been cut out and re-attached.

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.