Based in Tradition and Looking to the Future: the Gangshan Shadow Puppet Theater

Combining literature, music, painting, arts and crafts, and theater in a great synthesis, shadow puppetry can be considered a truly multimedia art. In Chinese history, this type of performance had its heyday in the Song dynasty. The earliest puppets were made of inscribed silk paper, later changed to animal hide. The stage is transformed into a multifarious scene as the puppets pitch about on wooden rods, manipulated with both hands, projecting fleeting shadows upon the screen, lively and nimble, to the accompaniment of singing and the noise of the percussion, making for a spectacular performance.

As the Han people moved into Taiwan and began to cultivate, the shadow puppet theater originating in Tangshan, China came with it, bringing agricultural modes of life and popular beliefs, and becoming the most important recreational activity in peasant society. They also became an indispensable aspect of temple fairs, festivals, holidays and sacrificial rituals. Crucial to the shadow puppet theater is the ability to manipulate the puppets and to be able to project one's voice when singing, and these key techniques were taught by masters, under whom students had to undergo a long and difficult apprenticeship. In the 1950s, Taiwan puppet troupes flourished due to popular demand. In the period after Taiwan’s  liberation from Japanese rule, Kaohsiung is said to have had between 50 and 60 troupes. Shadow puppetry was thriving, but, in the 1960s and 1970s, with the establishment of television stations one after another, and the diversification of recreational activities, the puppet theater was not able to adapt to the changing times. Audiences waned in rural areas, and the stages became more and more unfrequented. In 2007, the Hexing theatrical troupe, led by the Zhang family for many generations, stopped performing, and donated all of its materials to the Kaohsiung County Museum of Shadow Puppetry for its collection of cultural relics. Though the great troupes of the past, such as Hong Xing Ge, Fu Xing Ge, Yong Xing Le, Dong Hua, etc., have confronted decline and mismanagement, all of them are doing their utmost to pass on the art to future generations and make it more popular.

Right now, those on the hunt for the delights of shadow puppetry, and who want a taste of the original flavor of the art, need only step into the Museum of Shadow Puppetry to relive the past. The Kaohsiung Museum of Shadow Puppetry is located in Gangshan, in a specially appointed building dedicated to showcasing the collection of traditional theater puppets, musical instruments, and stage props of every kind, illustrating the history of the rise and decline of the art in Taiwan. It also regularly invites traditional theater troupes to come perform in the Bureau of Cultural Affairs of Kaohsiung City Government, extending educational outreach to elementary- and middle-school students. Even with the huge weight of caring for these cultural assets, the Museum of Puppetry has not slackened its pace. In 2010 it partnered with the Shu-Te Institute of Science and Technology to digitize its collection of images and music to promote this puppetry culture, from tradition roots to digital forms, showing its roots as well as its future.

Shadow puppet performers must work in harmony with drums, cymbals, wooden percussion, and erhu fiddles to achieve their aural and visual effect, using the puppets' movements to transform light and shadow in time with the music.

An opportunity, and even more enthusiasm

The Shu-Te Institute and Bureau of Cultural Affairs began to work together in 2010 for an international shadow puppetry festival. Professor Chen Ding-kai began to plan the contents of a digital arts exhibition in the summer of 2009, hoping to create an interactive way for people to come into contact with items from the cultural heritage.

While in the process of searching for materials, Chen found that the puppetry museum had already implemented a digitization of its collection, but its contents were all images. But then came the discovery that the museum had an entire cupboard filled with videotapes, and instantly the application plan came as a flash of inspiration. Chen recalled, “At first I just thought of these objects as being from another time and I wasn’t sure about their definition, but there was no time to spare.”

Fortunately there were local connections. There are only four surviving  troupes, and all are within the Kaohsiung area: Dong Hua (Da She), Fu Xing Ge (Mituo), Yong Xing Le (Mituo), and Fu De (Gang Shan). Gang Shan, considered as the birthplace of the shadow puppet theater, is only about half an hour away by car, so there was an element of convenience in carrying out the project.

In the team Chen Dingkai was responsible for planning and coordination. For the area of talent and recruitment, there was gradual integration with the school’s visual communications talent, and College of Design Dean Prof. Weng Yinghui was invited to participate in the project. A consulting committee was formed during the implementation phase made up of leaders of the dramatic troupes, Prof. Shi Guangsheng of the Department of Drama and Theater of the National Taiwan University of the Arts, and Prof. Lin Yongchang of the Kunshan University General Education Center.

In making use of items from the museum collection of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, there were no problems acquiring permission to use film materials. But the process of digitization was tricky: the tapes were from another decade, there was a problem with moisture and mold, there was frequent electronic noise, and great pains had to be taken to address these problems. Also, it was hoped that the website could obtain  barrier free certification, the film would need subtitles, but accuracy of translations would have to be repeatedly checked. In addition, materials for interpreting the dramatic objectives all needed to be collected and authenticated, to be sent to the Bureau of Cultural Affairs to be examined and revised.

When the website comes online, it will not just contain images and metadata, but also use a system similar to YouTube, allowing users to comment, forward, and even vote on the content. Users will be able to make recommendations, giving visibility to every lively and wonderful shadow puppet play, so that they will not just be buried in a database where few will see them.

In the past, the puppetry museum carried out a digitization project for puppet theater, but it was purely a collection of images.

If the water is bad, what good is having nice cups to drink it with?

Converting reel upon reel of film, listening to line after line of lines of story narration, the project team bridged the gap to another era as well as the digital divide. Each had their own original observations about the shadow theater.

 “You can observe the disparity between the stage props in different decades, as in the beginning when they used candles and oil lamps, and the light source was not very stable, until later when stage lights were used.”

 “The puppets had a consistent size in the beginning, but later some were very large, and a lot of the forms were persons. Slowly this evolved into diverse representations of animals or demons.”

 “Stories previously were mostly those such as “Prince Nezha Conquering the Sea” or “Journey to the West”. A lot of the repertoire today is original material created by puppeteers, or based on fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood.”

Against the backdrop of cultural succession gap, the questions that shadow puppet theater  poses, perhaps through the digitization of this collection will elicit some attention and response.

Professor Chen at first never imagined that so much time was needed for the detailed task of inputting metadata, but this was of utmost importance in the preservation of cultural artifacts. Chen explained it to the assistants in the following way: “Digitization technology is not the focus of student learning, rather the content and metadata of what is digitized are. Whether it can attract interest, whether it can be understood and suits one’s taste, that is the key. Digitization technology and digital content also must be sustainably managed. A good example would be the relationship between a cup, a beverage and a teashop. If their teacups are beautiful and practical, but what’s in the teacup tastes terrible, consumers  won’t buy there , and neither can sustainable management be achieved.”

Apart from holing of shadow puppet theater festivals held and outreaching to elementary and middle schools takes place, some question marks that emerge in the cultural gap marked by shadow puppet theater may receive more attention as a result of this digitization project. For the preservation and development of shadow puppet theater, existing troupes have all authorized the public broadcast of films of their productions made under the plan, and the Bureau of Cultural Affairs put on a “Special Exhibit on Shadow Puppet Theater Digitization Results from July 9 to September 30, 2011 in coordination. The hope is that the web platform for the digitization of their collection will garner even more attention and response, and spur an interest in traditional popular culture among groups in society with varying needs.

Some question marks emerge in the cultural gap marked by shadow puppet theater, and perhaps the digitization of this collection will elicit more attention and response.