The art of light and shadow

Song Guochao

The national representative successor of the Fuzhou Shadow Play and the 4th inheritor of the Fuzhou Shadow Play Family.

宋國超

復州皮影戲國家級代表性傳承人，復州皮影戲世家第四代傳人

N: What are the characteristics of a Fuzhou Shadow Play?

Song: The Fuzhou Shadow Play is strongly inf l uenced by the culture of Luanzhou, Hebei. It has a history of 300 years. Different from shadow plays in other places, the most outstanding feature of the Fuzhou Shadow Play is the unique tune and accent. As the representative puppet song of Dalian, even the whole Northern Liaoning Province, Shadow Play in Fuzhou is performed in Dalian accent at the local temple fairs, celebrating fetes like weddings and so on. The classic stories are the main contents. Shadow play was originated from Shanxi, and then spread through Hebei and Southern Liaoning. The plays and lines stayed unchanged, while the tunes and accents, as well as the ways of performing were changed according to the customs and culture in different areas, which also challenges the skills of the artists a lot. For example, there are some lively parts in stories of Fuzhou Shadow play mixed with the tunes of A Song- and - dance duet in the northeast of China which can better raise the resonance among the audience.

N: Normally how many people are there in a shadow play band?

Song: Now there should be at least eight members in a band, for shadow play is a kind of comprehensive art that includes music, painting and preforming. These eight members are multifunctional; they are able to play the musical instruments, sing the opera, play the puppets……For example, after my turn at singing, I play the instruments, such as the Er'hu, the fl ute, dulcimer and so on, and the one who is singing needs to also play the puppets. The bigger-scaled play needs more artists. Earlier Fuzhou shadow play was so popular in Dalian that the audience were addicted to it and even asked for additional performances. Once I led a band performing in some villages. We performed East March of Xue Li and Tang Yinglie. Originally we planned to play just for one week, but the audience didn't want us to leave, so we performed two more shows. The traditional classic of Fuzhou Shadow Play is The Legend of Yue Fei. If we played every night for four hours, it would take 2 months to fi nish the whole story.

N: Are there many fans of the Fuzhou Shadow Play?

Song: Formerly it was only played at temple fairs or at some celebrations. Now it has moved into the theatres and museums of Dalian. Some are also performed in other cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, with audience of considerable size. Fuzhou Shadow play is now also performed in some schools, and in order to be closer to real life, I created some shadow plays of fables or educational stories especially for kids, the classic tales of Sima Guang and Kong Rong for instance. The kids fi nd these plays vivid and can accept the core of the stories better with the help of colourful shadow play.