The ancient town of Qibao Old Street, the nearest to the city center, is crowded and bustling all year round, but what many people don't know is that located on a horizontal street by the river, there is a "Qibao Shadow Art Museum", a small façade, if you do not pay attention, you will even accidentally miss it.
Legend has it that shadow puppetry flourished in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty, and spread from the north to the south of the Jiangnan around the time of the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the existing local literature and many research, shadow puppetry really took root and blossomed in the Shanghai area at the beginning of the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and its birthplace was in the ancient town of Qibao. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Mao Gengyu (1850-1907) of Qibao Town, Mao Gengyu (1850-1907), Qibao Maojiatang (now Lianming Village, Qibao Town), formed the "Hongxutang Shadow Puppet Class". For more than 120 years, seven generations of Mao's shadow puppetry class have been performing, with a complete inheritance and rich heritage, which has promoted the prosperity of shadow puppetry in Shanghai and made Qibao Town a sub-center of southern shadow puppet art. In June 2007, Qibao Shadow Puppet Play was included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Shanghai.
Shippo shadow puppets are elves dancing in candlelight. It is mainly painted, so it appears beautiful and bright, the shape is exaggerated and vivid, and it has a strong decorative effect. Shadow puppet props have a rich background and strong ethnic style and folk characteristics. The repertoire is mainly based on historical and traditional themes, including "Fengshen Yanyi", "Journey to the West", "Sui and Tang Dynasty Yanyi", "Yue Chuan", "Yang Jiajun" and so on.
The exhibition area uses graphics, physical objects, audio and video methods to show in detail the inheritance genealogy, circulation status, basic form and artistic characteristics of Qibao shadow puppetry.
Northern shadow puppetry is mostly made of cowhide and donkey skin, mainly engraved, advocating roughness. The Shippo shadow puppet is mostly made of sheepskin, with strong transparency, less carving, heavy painting, single-line flat painting, and the use of head and torso separation method, easy to flexible operation.
On the window wall of the staircase in the second-floor exhibition hall are shadow puppet paintings, which are all exhibits of shadow puppet figures, and also display many shadow puppets used in the earliest period, as well as paintings related to shadow puppetry.
Xiaobian shows shadow puppets from all over the world to feel the style together.
Shaanxi shadow puppet
Tangshan shadow puppet
Shanxi shadow puppet
New Shanghai shadow puppet
Shippo shadow puppet