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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.

Description

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Dan (lady), with separate headband and headdress. Head and hands of puppet (part a) are carved from wood. Components painted pink beige. The puppet’s body is formed by a reed cage. Character has a pointed nose, moveable eyes and large ears. Eyes are black-rimmed, eyebrows are painted black and thin. She has black hair pulled into a top bun and low ponytail. The ponytail is secured with an orange tulle-like tie. Between the bun and ponytail is a light blue band with sequins. She has one pink earring. The character is wearing a front opening jacket, secured with ties, with extended sleeves that drape down. Opening is trimmed on either side with sparkly silver ribbon. Cuffs are trimmed by a white ribbon with pink and green floral motifs embroidered on them. Curvilinear motifs across sleeves, done in dark green sequins. Character has a matching collar, that secures at the front, with dark pink fringe all along the bottom edge and a wavy yellow ribbon along the top. Overtop, the character is wearing another collar. The second collar is red, secures at the back and has yellow fringe along the bottom edge. The neckline is trimmed with a blue wavy ribbon and the surface is covered in floral motifs. Designs are done in dark green, silver and gold sequins. Character has a pink belt, over the jacket, covered in floral motifs. Designs done in dark green, gold and red sequins. Bottom part of puppet is covered by a decorated overskirt and a long, plain pink underskirt, with a back slit. The overskirt is made up of four thin front panels and one large back panel. All have yellow fringe along the bottom edges and ribbon trim. The front panels are trimmed with a wavy green ribbon, the back a striped red, yellow and blue one. All panels covered in floral motifs done in dark green, red and silver sequins, and curvilinear motifs done in gold sequins. 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, with a metal attachment, inside of the central bamboo rod. Headband (part b) is brown with white floral embroidery across it. Band secured at the back with long neon orange-pink ties. Headdress (part c) is semi-circular and rests on top of the puppet’s head. It is made of cardboard, with a metal frame, covered in pink fabric. Along the top and sides are numerous protruding wires, covered in green fabric and circular and flower shaped sequins. In between the wires, on the fabric surface of the headdress, are floral motifs done in sequins. All edges of headdress are bordered with sequins. Sequins are pink, silver, light blue, light green and gold. There are two red ties on either end of the headdress.

Iconographic Meaning

Puppet represents a young lady.