*Iron Rod Puppet Show

*Iron Rod Puppet Show

Nominating Unit: City of Chaozhou

Also called paper-shadow show, Chaozhou Tiezhi Puppet Show is a rare variety of the puppet show art in China. It is evolved from the shadow play introduced by the immigrants to Central China during the Southern Song Dynasty. After the Qing Dynasty, in order to cater to the visual needs of the audience, the performers took off the paper in shadow play and changed the fl at puppet into a round one. They bundle up millet stalks to make the body of the puppet, fasten papers to make the hands of the puppet, whittle a piece of wood as the feet of the puppet and make the head of the puppet with clays. At that time this was called paper shadow play with a round body. Then it evolved into puppet on the stage with the practices of the artists. Chaozhou Tiezhi Puppet is controlled by the three iron strings equipped at the back of the puppet. The plays, performing actions and the singing tunes are the same as that in Theochew Opera. There are three to four people responsible for manipulating the puppet during the performance. Each one of the people is sitting cross-legged at the backstage controlling one to two puppets, accompanied by nine to twelve singers with musical instruments. The basic performing action includes pushing, pulling, lifting, poking and shaking, etc. Sometimes in order to be in accordance with the roles and the development of the play, some special manipulating crafts such as flying to the sky, probing into the earth, igniting, shooting an arrow, riding a horse, unfolding a fan, boating and acrobatic fighting will be carried out during the performance.(https://www.daowen.com)

However, as people’s artistic orientation changes, Chaozhou Tiezhi Puppet Show now is losing its audience. Moreover, the performers in the puppet show troupe are famers at the same time. The troupe is not so well organized. Thus it is difficult for them to carry out studies of the puppet show, making it more challenging for them to inherit some highly difficult performing crafts. It is high time to take steps to save and protect the art form.

Chaozhou Tiezhi Puppet Show was selected into the list of the first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.