After leading the community audience to visit the puppet show, Xiang Chunlei, the director of the "All Things Are Puppets" studio, announced that there will be a mysterious guest appearance. As the lights dimmed, the image of the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot "Ice Pier" suddenly appeared on the white curtain — a shadow puppet they had just made in the morning, which caused the children to cheer. The "Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Community - Puppet Show" opened on February 10 in the exhibition hall on the third floor of the Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center. The week-long event was carried out in various forms such as traditional puppet displays, shadow puppet performances and parent-child productions, so that "dolls" could be integrated into the daily community cultural life.
Puppet shows have a history of more than 2,000 years in China, and in May 2006, they were approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. At the opening ceremony of the puppet exhibition, Xiang Chunlei walked into the exhibition hall holding a delicate cane-headed puppet "Red Silk Woman". The puppets danced with red silk under his manipulation, as if they had a life. In addition to the cane-headed puppets, traditional puppet types include marionettes, shadow puppets, and cloth bag puppets, all of which can be seen in this exhibition. The exhibition also features puppets from Southeast Asia, who were also influenced by Chinese puppets.
However, puppets do not have to have exquisite carvings and complex mechanisms, kraft paper, sponges, plastic bottles, metal, glass fibers and other conceivable materials can become the prototype of "even". In the interactive area of the exhibition, Xiang Chunlei and his studio partners brought a light and shadow show of "everything can be the protagonist" to the community residents. The materials they use are common daily necessities in life. Two plastic bottles stick together, colored paper is attached, and with a flashlight, a vivid owl appears. A projector and a few plastic bottles turned into a shadow puppet can perform a funny "chicken eats shrimp" skit.
"The biggest charm of puppet drama is that it can present infinite possibilities on stage." Xiang Chunlei is the curator of the exhibition and a community resident who has lived in Dapuqiao for more than 20 years. He studied under Chen Weiqun, a national first-class actor and representative inheritor of Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage, and has been engaged in work and cultural exchange activities related to puppet theater since entering the puppet performance class of Shanghai Theater Academy in 1992, "Puppets have become an inseparable part of my life. As the director of the "Everything is Puppet" studio, he has long used "puppets" as a small incision to let everyone pay attention to the inheritance and development behind this common "toy". This idea was supported by the Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center. The exhibition activities held in this cooperation hope to break through the public's understanding of puppets on the basis of non-genetic inheritance.
The studio of "All Things Are Even" on the 4th floor of the Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center was inaugurated last December. There are many exquisite puppets on the table, but Xiang Chunlei reminded reporters to look at a high-foot folding table lamp in the back, and a pair of eyes are attached to the lamp - it is also a "puppet". He held the slender "neck" of the lamp and leaned up and down, imitating the lamp to speak with different emotions, and the lamp also came alive in his hand like a "red silk woman", and had his own character and life.
As long as the imagination is mobilized, the objects around you can be anthropomorphized. When teaching children to experience puppet intangible cultural heritage at school, Xiang Chunlei will give them such eye stickers, allowing them to stick them in all corners of the classroom, giving life to each item and finding fun in life.
"Unlike other intangible cultural heritage, the threshold of puppets is not high, and we want to further simplify it and become a way of communication between people and people." During the exhibition, there will be two parent-child production and interactive activities every day, allowing parents to bring their children to make puppets together to enhance parent-child communication. Xiang Chunlei introduced that the future studio plans to launch the "Daddy Has a Play" activity in the Dapuqiao community, through puppet production and puppet drama creation, to explore the potential of young fathers to "bring babies" and participate in community cultural activities, "making puppets needs to be creative, but also have physical strength, very suitable for fathers." ”
Puppet shows can be big or small, as big as "War Horse" staged in the theater, as small as a table, a beam of light, and two fingers. "Intangible cultural heritage should be grounded. Nowadays, there are many good puppet shows on the stage, but not everyone has the conditions to enter the theater to enjoy. By teaching everyone to make simple puppets and using the same theatrical elements as the theater to make a small play, we let everyone feel and like the puppet art at close range, and can also bring aesthetic enlightenment to children. ”
Zhang Ruijing, deputy director of the Dapuqiao Street Office, introduced that the Dapuqiao community has always insisted on the construction of community culture as an important channel for non-genetic inheritance, looking for "non-genetic inheritors" at the doorstep of the family, this time joining hands with the "All Things Are Puppets" studio, focusing on the puppets of all ages, hoping that while inheriting culture, the dolls will not only become a means of performance on the stage, but also a way of life. In the future, the "All Things Are Puppets" studio will also work with the Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center to hold a series of interactive activities to enhance the cohesion of the community while deepening the intangible cultural heritage.
The event was hosted by the Party Working Committee and Office of Dapuqiao Street, Huangpu District, and hosted by The Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center and the "Everything is Puppet" Studio.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Li Junna Text Editor: Li Junna Caption Source: Dapuqiao Community Cultural Activity Center Photo Editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Zhong Han