In Wuzhuang Village, Huaniu Town, Maiji District, there is such a shadow puppet troupe, the members of the troupe are all from local farmers, every year during the Spring Festival and the Temple Fair in the First Month, they will get together and perform in the countryside. For them, shadow puppetry is not only a kind of drama, but also a kind of inheritance and promotion of shadow puppet culture and art.
Shadow puppetry, commonly known locally as "cowhide lamp shadow", is a silhouette of a character made of animal skin or cowhide, which is a type of drama based on the performance of ancient Chinese folk stories and myths and legends. According to historical records, shadow puppetry began in the Western Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Qing Dynasty, and spread to West Asia and Europe during the Yuan Dynasty. Nowadays, with its unique local characteristics and strong artistic charm, shadow puppetry is still loved by many ordinary people.
On the ninth day of the first lunar month on February 9, members of the Shadow Puppet Troupe of Wuzhuang Village in Huaniu Town came to Baijiahe Village in Huaniu Town and brought a wonderful shadow puppet show to the majority of fans in the village. A curtain, a chandelier, a long table, six people in a class, a drum beating, a good play to open the gong. Behind the white curtain, the shadow puppet is manipulated to "pick the thread", and with the tacit understanding of the singing voice and the accompaniment of the hands, the shadow puppet flies up and down, and the flexible swaying is reflected on the screen under the light and shadow... The members of the drama class have a clear division of labor, playing and singing, singing and combining, and stage a hundred states in the world, the hundred faces of all beings, the legends of gods and monsters, etc. Although I have seen it many times, the fans on the stage are still intoxicated and relaxed.
For the members of the shadow puppet troupe in Wuzhuang Village, Huaniu Town, the more than ten square meters of the theater carries and interprets the charm and spirit of the thousand-year-old shadow puppet culture and art. Once, because they loved the art of shadow puppetry and liked to sing opera, they came together, bought equipment, and founded a troupe. With their love for folk art and the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, they have been singing for more than 40 years.
"I've loved the shadow puppet industry since I was a kid, and I've organized teams to go to the countryside to perform since I was 20 years old. At the beginning of the performance, the production of film puppets was not familiar, and I could only entrust people to buy them, and after I became skilled, I could make them myself without any shadow puppets. Every year, we go to the countryside to perform from the beginning of the first month of the lunar month until the end of the middle of the third month of the lunar calendar. I am engaged in this industry, on the one hand, to enrich the cultural life of the masses, on the other hand, to inherit the intangible cultural heritage of shadow puppetry, to ensure that it is not lost, so that more people know. This is a precious cultural wealth left by our ancestors, and we must carry forward the development and continue to pass it on. Wu Zhiqiang, now 65 years old, head of the shadow puppet group in Wuzhuang Village, Huaniu Town, said proudly. 【Editor: Liu Meili】
(Tianshui Online Editor: Li Junfeng)