Lord
scholar (xiang gong ye), a classic marionette play, was
often performed as an interlude at the beginning of a formal
performance. One of its arias says, "If you ask who first
made marionettes,
it was Chen ping who make them in
the Han Dynasty."
This tells an old tale that Han Gaozu, Emperor of the
Han Dynasty, accepted Chen ping's trick of performing
marionette beauties on the low city walls so that the Hun
army was forced to withdraw. As a result, Han Gaozu honoured
the marionette show with the title of "Imperial
Entertainment." In the Tang
Dynasty, Chen Yuanguang commanded his troops into Fujian
where he set up a town named Zhangzhou and brought in the
cultures of the central plains,
including the marionette show and the carving skills. At
that time Buddhism was quite
current. Zhangzhou was then called the Buddhistic Land.
Temples and shrines could be found here and there. Whenever
people went there to prostrate themselves before the figures,
a marionette show would be given. And the marionette carving
skills in Zhangzhou developed rapidly.
The marionette performance was later used not only for
driving out ghosts and getting rid of disasters but for
weddings, birthday parties,
celebrating a new born baby and
the completion of his first month of life. The marionette
performance gradually developed into two forms. One is moved
by strings, the other is moved by hands. The Zhangzhou
puppet manufacturer that adopts
the folk traditional carving skills and the technique of the
expressions of facial make-ups in dramas has made the puppet
figures more distinctive and more bright-looking than
before. The puppet figures in fine colourful clothes and
ornaments are well received as family collections, popular
gifts and the children's favourite toys.
Yuchuan Handicraft Manufacture, the aristocratic
puppet-carving family, will constantly improve his skills to
share the artistic charms with all enthusiasts, all
collectors at home and abroad.
