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Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Wu Sheng (martial male). Head, torso and hands are carved from wood. Components painted pink beige. Character has a small 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 are painted black, imitating hair. He is wearing a dark blue cap with metal buttons along the bottom edge. Long black strands of hair are attached to the top of the cap. The character is wearing an orange robe, with one large panel on the front, three back panels and two side panels. There is a tie on the front panel at the left shoulder, ties in the middle of each side panel, and ties on the side of the left and right back panels. Character is wearing a matching collar and there are added panels overtop of the shoulders and on the front panel, below the waist. Additional panel on the front is bordered white-pink fringe. The collar, side panels and additional front panel are trimmed with wavy black ribbons. The large front panel is trimmed with red, green and gold, the back panels are untrimmed. Cuffs have a black border with red and silver flowers and phoenixes(?) embroidered on them. Curvilinear, floral and geometric motifs painted across entire surface of robe and collar in silver, green and light blue glitter. Centre of front panel has a dragon(?) design, made of pink fabric with a yellow nose, red tongue and two white fangs. The interior of the dragon is bordered with a wavy light blue ribbon. Silver and gold curvilinear designs are painted across its face. The entire section with the dragon(?) motif is bordered with the same ribbon used to border the cuffs. The top half of the robe back is made of yellow fabric, with characters printed in red, and has a ribbed yellow patch in the centre. Character is wearing a dark blue undergarment. Puppet is operated by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to his torso, and two more 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.

Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents a young officer or general.