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Troupe of dwarfs finds niche in shadow puppetry
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THE Dragon Sky Puppetry Troupe that is composed of eight dwarfs has been performing free shadow play shows in the Hangzhou Shadow Play Art Museum since last April. They average 23 years of age and 126 centimeters in height.
Their shows attract audiences of about 800 people each day, most of them out-of-town and foreign tourists drawn to the ideal location of the museum at the scenic West Lake.
When some people watch the shadow puppetry, they ask, “Are you kids?” Team leader Tao Peng replies “No, we are adults; we just have a short height.”
Such misunderstanding happens almost every day, but Tao and other performers never feel annoyed. Instead they tend to correct with a smile.
Before the troupe settled in Hangzhou, they had toured around China since their establishment in 2008. Last year, the China Academy of Art, owner of the museum, provided them with performing space for free.
“We had already gotten familiar with Hangzhou before settling here because we had been invited by the Hangzhou China International Cartoon and Animation Festival to perform shadow plays a couple of times,” says Tao.
Their performing programs are adapted from Chinese literary masterpieces, folk myths and popular cartoons, and sometimes they put a positive, modern spin on the old classics.
For example, one of the shows is the famous story of “Wu Song Slaying a Tiger.” While the tiger is killed by Wu Song in the original version, Wu Song beats the beast into a coma and then sends it to a zoo in the shadow play.
“We hope to spread some ideas on animal protection because children are frequenters of our shows,” explains Tao.
To thank Hangzhou for its invitation, the troupe also prepared a puppetry based on a local legend, “Madame White Snake,” which tells of the love between a young scholar and a 1,000-year-old snake that has taken on the form of human being.
The troupe makes all the puppets it uses in its shadow plays, using skills the members learned from old craftsmen in Beijing, Henan and Shaanxi provinces.
Donkey hide or cow leather is cut into various shadow play human and animal characters. Some puppets are so delicate that even the eyes can be moved with sticks.
Generally, a simple puppet takes one person three to four days to finish, while a sophisticated one needs a week. Besides performing free shows every day, Tao and other people manufacture multifarious puppets priced around 50 yuan for selling.
Not long ago, they produced a series of cartoon images for the annual China International Cartoon and Animation Festival held in early May, which turned out to be popular with schoolchildren.
“Combining the cartoon with shadow play could promote both at the same time. I think shadow puppetry was the originator of modern animation,” says Tao.
Hundreds of years ago, shadow puppetry was so popular around China that numerous troupes competed fiercely for market share. When people manipulated the puppets during a performance, they always covered the backstage to prevent rivals from stealing their playing techniques and skills.
Today, Dragon Sky opens the backstage to the public, and they invite the audience to play puppets with them.
“We cannot deny the fact that shadow play is declining over time, thus promoting it among the public seems vital to preserve this folk art,” Tao says. “We hope more and more people can acquaint with shadow puppetry and come to play it.”
Besides performing in the museum, Dragon Sky also receives commercial performance invitations, which is its main source of income.
Before the players formed the troupe, they had their own jobs and lived a life often troubled by their limited height. Tao himself was a designer living in Shandong Province. When he heard that there was a troupe for dwarfs and shadow play, he quickly resigned and joined it. Now he has engaged in shadow puppetry for five years.
Sun Yakun was an accountant before becoming a puppetry player. At present, she is dating a fellow member of the troupe and plans to get married soon.
Being the same height brings a sense of identity to the troupe members, which can cultivate affection. There are two married couples within this eight-person performance team.
“Although my former colleagues were nice to me, my height was a barrier between them and me. This shadow play team gives me a sense of belonging, which resembles a lamb finally blending into a flock of goats,” says Sun.
Date: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am, 2pm, 3pm
Address: 210 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8702-0140
Admission: Free
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