What is the specialty of Zhangzhou puppet head carving?

Zhangzhou puppet head carvings are national intangible cultural heritage.

Zhangzhou puppet head carving is a folk arts and crafts. It is a special skill in the production of puppet show props. The overall shape includes the head, limbs, clothing, crown and helmet, etc. Puppet head carving only refers to the shape of the head. .

Zhangzhou puppet head carving is a special skill in the production of puppet show props. It belongs to folk arts and crafts. It was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists together with Zhangzhou Bag Puppet Show. Puppet art can be divided into three types according to the performance form: bag puppets, string puppets and stick puppets. Bag puppets, also known as bag puppets and palm puppets, are said to have "originated in the Jin Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming Dynasty" and spread to Taiwan and Southeast Asia as early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. Its performance feature is to directly manipulate the puppets with the palms and fingers. It is a unique style of puppet theater. The puppets performed are called "Puppet Show" because their clothes are wide and resemble cloth bags. Zhangzhou puppet head carvings attach great importance to the portrayal of character traits. Exquisite shapes, rich expressions, and stylized processing methods are its main features.

Zhangzhou puppet head carvings are mainly distributed in Zhangzhou City, Xiamen City, Quanzhou City and surrounding areas in Fujian Province. The overall shape of Zhangzhou puppets includes heads, limbs, clothing, crowns and helmets, etc. The puppet head carving only refers to the shape of the head. As for the carving of opera stage character heads, great emphasis is placed on the portrayal of character traits. Exaggerated shapes, rich expressions, and stylized processing methods are common features of Zhangzhou puppet head carvings. This carving has always been passed down from master to apprentice, and is mainly passed down from family to ancestors. It has been passed down to this day without interruption.

Zhangzhou puppet carving began in the Jin Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, with a history of nearly 2,000 years. After the founding of New China, the puppet works of folk artists Xu Niansong and Xu Shengfang were collected by the arts and crafts department. In 1959, the raw and dan puppet heads carved by Xu Niansong showed the images of ancient talents with raised eyebrows, drunken eyes, smiles, and wide foreheads, as well as the images of ladies with eyebrows, cherry mouths, and high bun hair. They were selected to participate in the National Arts and Crafts Exhibition and were well received by the culture. Well received by the art community. Xu's son Xu Zhuchu inherited the family legacy and made innovations. From 1979 to 1989, his works were exhibited in Australia, the United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and won a high reputation. Xu Zhuchu's representative puppet head works are collected in the "Zhuchu Puppet Art Museum" on the second floor of the Garden Building on Yan'an North Road in the city.

Historical background

Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, puppet theater has gradually moved from cities to towns and villages, and has formed puppet arts of different styles and genres in various places. For example, Jiali Opera in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, has only four roles: Sheng, Dan, Bei (Jing), and Za (Chou). It is called the "Four Beauty Troupes". Some Jiali operas only have thirty-six figures, so it is called "Thirty-six Jiali figures are worth millions of soldiers." The famous puppet head carving artists in Quanzhou in the early years include the anonymous craftsmen of the idol shop and puppet carving in Yiquan Back Street; Huang Liangsi, Huang Caisi and later Huang Jiaxiang of Tumen Street and the puppet sculpting master Jiang of Beimen Huayuan Street. Add to walk. The shape of their puppets, with their carefully carved heads and plump faces, has the characteristics of Tang Dynasty figures. The pastel colors are delicate and the lines are bright, forming the shape of Fujian Southern School puppets. The bag puppet show in Zhangzhou, Longxi area, has been very popular since the Qing Dynasty. Puppet sculptor Xu Ziqing was already very popular in the twelfth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. Xu Ziqing, a puppet sculptor, opened the "Chengchengshi" puppet workshop in the east gate of Zhangzhou in the twelfth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1807). Xu Niansong, a master puppet sculptor known as "Nanjiang (Canada) Beixu", is a representative of the Northern School. Xu Zhuchu is already the sixth generation.