Wang Shaoxi's shadow puppet play "Yang Jiajian" zhang Quncang photographed
"Tell the stories of the ages in one mouth, and dance with your hands to millions of soldiers." Wang Shaoxi, the representative inheritor of the ningxia Hui Autonomous Region-level intangible cultural heritage shadow puppetry, has endless words when he talks about his story with shadow puppetry.
"I learned shadow puppetry to eat a full meal." Wang Shaoxi was born in 1965 in Maqu Village, Zhaike Township, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. When he was 11 years old, after he finished his performance in the shadow puppet theater class, he had the courage to find a shadow puppet master and said that he wanted to learn from the teacher. The master said that he would not pay for learning to play, but just eat enough to eat. When Wang Shaoxi heard that he could learn drama and still have enough to eat, he didn't mention how happy he was at that time, because the wish of many people in their village was to be able to eat enough.
Wang Shaoxi began to follow the shadow puppet troupe to the countryside and villages, learning to play the huqin, learning to pick the line at the front desk, and learning the singing voice and lyrics of various roles. After 3 years, he was able to complete all the links of pulling, acting and singing by himself, and soon became the pillar of the shadow puppet theater class. The master told him: In the future, you will be a shadow puppet artist. Being able to eat enough and earn money, Wang Shaoxi likes shadow puppetry more and more.
In 1996, after Wang Shaoxi immigrated to Delin Village, Beibao Town, Xixia District, Yinchuan City, he went to school, went to the countryside, and went to the community, and more and more shadow puppet performances, and his singing level was getting higher and higher.
In 2002, Wang Shaoxi was recruited to the folk art group of the national 5A-level tourist scenic spot Town Beibao Western Film and Television City, as the head of the shadow puppet class. At that time, zhenbeibao western cinema also built a platform for Wang Shaoxi's shadow puppetry class to perform traditional shadow puppetry for tourists in the western film and television city every day.
"Craftsmen can't just eat the old books." Over the years, Wang Shaoxi has insisted on practicing singing and pulling skills every day, operating the dynamics of shadow puppet characters, blowing and playing songs, beating gongs and drums to turn around the stage, constantly learning new knowledge of shadow puppetry, absorbing the advantages of other artists, combining social development to create new plays, and constantly giving new life to the old craft of shadow puppetry.
In 2012, zhenbeibao western film and television city was built as "old Yinchuan street", attracting many folk artists to settle in. Wang Shaoxi seized the opportunity and began to accept shadow puppet lovers to increase the strength of the team, set up a variety of traditional folk culture performances of the drama garden, and named it "Chengtian Opera Garden", one of the earliest entertainment venues in Yinchuan City, and shadow puppetry began to develop under his efforts.
Wang Shaoxi's reputation for shadow puppetry is growing, and he has been invited to perform in Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and other provinces and municipalities for many times, and won the Excellence Award of the Northwest Qin Cavity Competition ningxia Yinchuan City Group. In 2013, he was rated as the representative inheritor of the autonomous region-level intangible cultural heritage project (shadow puppet), and in 2019, he was hired as the deputy director of the shadow puppet department of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Folk Artists Association and a member of the Ningxia Literary and Art Association Musicians Association.
In 2021, Ningxia organized a group of non-hereditary heirs to go to Shaanxi universities to perform, and Wang Shaoxi's shadow puppetry course was deeply loved by students. Professors at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music evaluated Wang Shaoxi's performance of shadow puppetry as a professor, and invited him to be a visiting professor at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music to cultivate new talents.
"Several of my current apprentices are all college students and graduate students!" Wang Shaoxi is proud of the inheritance of shadow puppetry. He was obsessed with shadow puppetry, saying that he should inherit this craft wholeheartedly and let shadow puppetry add happiness and happiness to the broad masses of the people.
Wang Tao/Wen