学进去

When Wang Haiyan was young, her favorite toys weren’t Barbie dolls. Instead, she stated learning to make shadow puppets (皮影) from her father at 13. Now 43, Wang has spent 30 years practicing and spreading the art.

Shadow puppetry is a form of theater that uses puppets made from leather (皮) or paper, accompanied by music and singing, Invented during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), it tells us about folklore (民间传说) and historical stories, passing down culture and customs over thousands of years.

Shadow puppetry is all about creating the puppets and performing with them. Wang’s hometown of Hua county, Shaanxi, is known as the birthplace of the folk art.

Puppet-makers must follow 24 steps to make the puppets, including washing the leather, carving (雕刻), and painting, according to Wang. Carving is the most difficult part.

“We have a special carving technique(技巧)-moving the leather under the knife,” Wang said. “You have to hold the knife still in your right hand and only move the leather in your left hand. “ It took Wang three years to master this skill. She used a brick (砖块) to strengthen her left hand while practicing. It takes about 3,000 carves to make a shadow puppet. “The complicated (复杂的) steps make it hard to hand down the folk art,” she said.

But Wang has found a way to do so. In 2016, she made shadow puppets based on the cartoon series Huyao Xiaohongniang (《狐妖小红娘》) and gave a livestreaming (直播) performance. She used colors like blue and purple that are rarely seen in shadow puppetry and added more sticks to the puppets to make the performance more vivid.