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Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents a young student.

Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Xiao Sheng (young male), with separate headdress. 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 painted red, eyebrows are painted black and have sharp spikes in the middle. Back of head and area around ears painted black, imitating hair. He is wearing a dark blue cap with metal buttons along the bottom edge. Long, dark brown-black strands of hair attached to the top of the cap. The character is wearing a light green robe, with extended gauze-like sleeves that drape down. The robe has a left side opening, secured with ties and metal buttons, and a small right side slit. Opening and neckline trimmed with a wavy pink ribbon. Robe is covered in large floral motifs, done in sequins. Flowers are done in dark pink and silver, the vines and leaves are done in shades of blue. Plain red undergarment beneath the robe. Puppet is operated 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. Back of puppet’s head has been cut out and re-attached. Headdress (part b) is rectangular folded cardboard, covered in green fabric and shaped by a metal frame, with a rounded top piece. The sides of the top piece flare out from the rectangular cap. Edges of top piece trimmed with animal hair(?). All interior edges of headdress, the rounded top and folded rectangle, are bordered with yellow wavy ribbons. Bottom edge of folded rectangle bordered by a dark blue band. Entire surface of headdress covered with curvilinear and floral motifs, done in sequins and beads. Sequins are red and silver, and beads are silver, dark blue and red. Two strips of cloth hang from the back, bottom edge, of the headdress. Strips are blue and decorated with orange geometric motifs and green lizards. Tips of strips made from cardboard, covered in green fabric. Plain ties on back of headdress, for securing it to the puppet’s head.

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.