A curtain, a lamp, a few shadow puppets, a few percussion instruments, coupled with the shadow puppet artist's flexible fingers and rounded singing voice, form a vivid shadow puppet play.
As the three major factions of shadow puppetry in China, "one narrates the events of the ages, and the two hands dance against millions of soldiers", these two poems accurately describe the magic of Lunan shadow puppetry. In the Zaozhuang Mountains, every New Year's Festival, when the farmers are idle, they set up a stage to sing opera, and the wonderful dance in the shadows of gongs and lights is a story of light and shadow that is intangible heritage.
In the era of no television, shadow puppetry was quite popular with the common people, and when night fell, moving a bench and sitting in the wheat field at the head of the village to enjoy shadow puppetry became an indelible memory in the hearts of many people.
Due to his father's ear and eyes since childhood, Chen Shouke, the fourth generation of Lunan shadow puppetry, became interested in shadow puppetry and learned shadow puppet acting skills from his father at an early age. A creaky flat shoulder, three worn-out prop boxes, has traveled through more than 20 provinces and municipalities across the country, more than 100 performances a year, mainly in some rural performances, deeply loved by the audience.
Today, Chen Shouke has been performing in the ancient city of Taierzhuang for more than ten years. "Many elderly people come to the ancient city with their children to watch shadow puppetry, and many young people who have seen shadow puppetry on the Internet also come to experience this folk art on the spot." Chen Shouke usually performs 6 days a week and 6 times a day, he said that seeing that everyone likes shadow puppetry, his enthusiasm for performing is higher, and he is more confident in the inheritance of shadow puppetry. (Dazhong Newspaper, Dazhong Daily client reporter Zhang Huanze, Meng Lingyang, correspondent Shi Peijing, reported design Li Yang Yu seafarer)