I often recall the shadow puppet play in my hometown

The picture shows a shadow puppet play.

I was born in Wangkui County, Heilongjiang, where shadow puppetry is very famous. When I was a child, I loved to watch shadow puppetry, and people called it "donkey shadow puppetry". The craftsmen use donkey skin to carve the shadow man, and the shadow man is carved according to the appearance of the characters in the play, and there are various roles. The shadow figure was carved according to the pattern, and then painted with bright colors. Then the arms and legs are strung to the body with thin leather strips or wires, and like real people, the joints can be moved, otherwise they can't do the action. The meticulously crafted characters are made up of eleven or more parts, including the stubble. Shadow people are not necessarily made of donkey skin, cow skin, sheep skin. The figures made of shadow figures are clamped up with straw, which is particularly beautiful.

These are all told to me by my mother, and I don't really know exactly how the craftsmen do it. When the drama class came to Tunzi, I knew that shadow puppetry was really fun and good-looking, and the content was so rich that I was addicted to watching it. Every day the sun didn't go down, so I went to take a seat. After looking at most of the night, the next morning two small eyes were red. My buddies laughed at me: "Donkey skin rebellion, rabbit boiling eyes." "I don't care if I'm a rabbit or not, I still don't fall." The mother said, ask the shadow artists if they want children, if so, let my old girl follow - she watches shadow puppets every day!

This group of shadow artists, I remember them singing shadow puppet plays, are famous far and wide. The leader of the team, Lao Xin, sang blackheads, and everyone called him Lao Xin, and I didn't know his big name. The little Luo who took the Son of Man was named Luo Xuewen, and he sang a small voice; the one who took the Son of Man, surnamed Zhou, sang Wensheng. These three filmmakers sang particularly well. The nancun and beitun all lined up to pick up, and the drama team did not have an empty time.

Every autumn, as soon as the crops come to the courtyard, tun li will go to the shadow artist to sing shadow puppet plays, and sing for more than twenty days, at least fifteen days. At that time, there were too few things that children could play with, so I was focused on shadow puppetry. Before the team could pick up the shadow puppet show, a few of my children and I were already looking forward to it. When the shadow puppet show came, we didn't care to eat dinner, so we went around and waited for the opening. Seeing those few people put the photo stage up and put the shadow window up, my heart did not mention how much I was looking forward to it.

The captain ordered a play, it was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and the filmmaker selected the shadow man to start the performance. The shadow puppet is so interesting, acting as if it were a real person. The little voice that sings can be heard from afar, and the sound even reminds me of the swallows that drill the sky.

Father could not go to see shadow puppets, because there had to be someone in the house to watch over the house. As soon as I got home, my father asked me where I had performed, and my mother said, let your old girl tell you about it. I watched the shadow puppet every night and told my father about it during the day. I was afraid that after a long time, I would forget it myself, so I asked my sister for a yellow paper book and three pencil heads, and wrote down the shadow puppet content I read every night. At that time, I didn't know how to write, let alone write, so I used a pen to draw it into a small shadow and record it like a comic. Liu Beisan Gu Maolu, Guan Yunchang over five levels and cut six generals, Zhuge Liangcao borrowed arrows from a boat, Zhang Fei shouted to break the Dangyang Bridge, and Zhao Zilong fought Changsakapo, etc., I drew down the characters and contents, and prepared to slowly tell my father.

I was really hooked and addicted to watching shadow puppets. Once I had a sprained foot and neck, I struggled to walk, and I wanted to go to a shadow puppet show at night. When my father wouldn't let me go, I cried and said I had to go. It happened that my sister-in-law's brother was at my house, and he said to go and I would take care of her. I grabbed a stick when I went, and the limp finally got to the ground. But when I came back, I couldn't move in pain, and it was my cousin's brother who carried me back. Later, my sister got married, and my brother-in-law led us to a group of children to go to see shadow puppet plays at night, and before he came back, he always counted first, counted all the children, and then went back.

After I started a family, I rarely went to shadow puppetry again, as if shadow puppetry had disappeared from my life. I watched a limited number of shadow puppet plays, and I didn't draw them again. Now, almost sixty years have not seen the donkey shadow. Once, my son's friend heard that I liked to watch shadow puppetry, so he specially brought some DVDs to me. My son also deliberately took the computer back and left it at home specifically for me to watch shadow puppets.

When I started a family, I didn't take a shadow puppet comic book. Later, I went home to look for it, but I couldn't find it anymore. My son said that if this book could be kept to this day, it would be an heirloom of our family! I think about it too, and it's a little painful.

People's Daily ( 2022-01-08 08 edition)