For people on Taiwan over fifty years of age, especially residents in the south, the attraction that captivated them most as children has got to have been shadow puppet plays. And Chang Te-ch'eng's Tung-hua Shadow Puppet Troupe is something they are all familiar with.
With a history dating back 200 years, the renowned and venerable Tung-hua Shadow Puppet Troupe offers a broad repertory of plays based on Chinese novels, folk legends, or original ideas, with dialogue, singing, manipulation, and special effects that appeal to young and old alike.
Chang Te-ch'eng was born into a family that has engaged in puppetry for six generations now and has carried on an unbroken heritage belonging to main stream of the Chaochow school of puppetry, which was brought to Taiwan from the south of China two centuries ago.
Born in 1920 as an only son, Chang was immersed in the world of shadow puppetry from infancy, and even though his father never pressed him to follow in his footsteps, a sense of mission and his own inclinations led him after graduating from high school to make up the fifth generation in a row to carry on the family tradition.
With his innate talents and wholehearted devotion to his craft, Chang has introduced many changes in the shadow puppet theater. The puppets themselves, for example, are larger and more colorful than before, and the faces have been made three-dimensional.
By enlarging the puppets and the screen and by adding new scripts and movements, Chang has adapted shadow puppet plays to bigger theaters and attracted larger audiences, so that the plays have kept up in popularity with local Chinese and Peking opera.
When shadow puppet plays were at their peak of popularity on Taiwan, Chang often gave more than twenty performances a month and during the seventh lunar month the pace became particularly hectic. It was hard on his wife: "Sometimes I came home only a few times a yea."
At that time a single play could draw a full house for ten days in a row. And even though a full-price ticket cost just NT$4 (NT$2 for children),he still made enough money to build himself a three-storey Western-style house, the only one within miles of where he lived.
His study is filled with awards and prizes he has won from civic groups, school clubs, and cultural foundations in places as far away as Japan, Hong Kong, the United States, and Turkey.
It is no longer novel for local folk artists to travel overseas, but the first one to do so was none other than Chang Te-ch'eng, who went to Japan for three months in 1952. Later, under the sponsorship of an academic foundation, he toured a number of universities in the U.S. and put on 64 performances during two and a half months.
In addition to the awards that testify to his lifelong contributions to his art, his study is also filled with more than 500 hand-copied scripts, the painstaking heritage of the family's six generations in the theater. After Chang Te-ch'eng suffered a stroke three years ago, his work has been carried on by sons.
Regardless of the ascendance of television and the fact that the number of regular shadow puppet troupes on the island has dwindled from more than a hundred in the 1930s to just four, in the Chang family the vitality of shadow puppet theater can be felt in a very real way.
Although the children of the seventh generation are still small, they are growing up immersed in the world of shadow puppets like their fathers and grandfather before them. Fourteen-year-old Chang Wen-shuo, the oldest, has a practiced hand with martial characters, and Chang Neng-chieh, the second oldest, has a clear and articulate voice. They each take after their fathers, and both of them helped out during the Ghost Festival this year playing immortals.
"I'm pretty good at doing Prince Nata but I'm no good at girls," says Chang Neng-chieh, playing with a puppet at the same time as he analyzing his abilities with the tone of an expert. Meanwhile, eight-month-old Chang Pi-hsun, who has been crying beside him, starts to smile and wave his arms about when he sees the puppet in his brother's hands. It seems vet another member will be joining the Tung-hua troupe one day.
After seven years of hoopla and plan ning, the Ministry of Education at the end of July announced its first group of Major National Folk Artists. They are:
Chang Te-ch'eng (shadow puppets), Li T'ien-lu (Chinese puppets), Li Hsiang-shih (Nankuan opera), Huang K'ui-li and Li Sung-lin (wood carving), Sun Yu-ch'in (ku-ch'in, or Chinese zither), and Hou Yu-tzung (drums and gongs).
All seven artists, advanced in age, are living treasures of national culture, and we plan to introduce the lives and achievements of each of them to our readers in future issues.
[Picture Caption]
The packed houses of thirty or more years ago are fond memories for Chan g. And the shadow puppet plays he put on must likewise remain cherished by the audi ences that saw them. (photo courtesy of Chang Te-ch'eng)
The long lines aren't for E.T. They're waiting to see the the Monkey Kin g battle demons and monsters in a play by the Tung-hua Shadow Puppet Troupe. (photo cour tesy of Change-ch'eng)
Being proficient at painting, carving, musical accompaniment, script writing, dialogue, and singing. . . holding down the throne as the master of shadow puppets is not easy. The yellowing scripts are family heirlooms of the Changs and a precious source of information about shadow puppet plays on Taiwan.
The Changs are all adept at shadow puppets. At far left is the current chief performer of the family, Chang Fu-kuo, who is Chang Te-ch'eng's third eldest son.
Seeing the shadow puppets beside him, Chang's youngest grandson stops crying and his grandfather smiles along with him.
Shadow Puppets in Brief
Shadow puppet theater is popular mainly in the south of Taiwan around Tainan and Kaohsiung. There are four troupes that maintain a constant repertory: Tung-hua, Ho-hsing, Fu-hsing-ko, and Yung-le-hsing. Not many people watch it in other parts of the island.
Shadow puppets are believed to date back to the Western Han dynasty (206 to 24 B.C.), and a romantic legend is attached to their origin. The fourth-century collection Sou-shen-chi, or In Search of the Supernatural, records that after Madame Li, the favorite concubine of Han Wu-ti (the Martial Emperor) passed away, the emperor thought of her constantly. Finally, a man from Ch'i named Li Shao-weng said that he could call back her spirit. He set up a screen at night and lit a lantern behind it. Through the screen the emperor did indeed see the silhouette of Madam Li, and that is said to have been the origin of shadow puppet theater.
Shadow puppet theater on Taiwan belongs to the school of Chaochow in Fukien Province and was brought to the island around 200 years ago. The plays are per formed mostly at temple ceremonies or on festive occasions, such as weddings, anniversaries, and housewarmings. Each troupe has four to five members: one main performer, one secondary performer, and two or three assistants for musical accompaniment. The main instruments are drums, gongs, cymbals, and the yeh-hu, a kind of violin.
Besides instruments, the chief equipment consists of puppets, the screen, and lamps.
Shadow puppets are made of various types of animal hide, depending on the region. In Taiwan they are usually made of leather or imported horsehide, treated until it is translucent and painted with tung oil. They are produced in several sections, and the arms and legs have joints. The heads are interchangeable with one another, so that four or five of them can be used with one body. The faces are decorated similarly to those of Chinese opera. The heroes are handsome, the villains are ugly, and male and female characters differ in gait and posture.
After the actors comes the stage. The screens used to be three by five feet or five by seven feet in size but are often larger now. Plastic, which is inexpensive and durable, has replaced the traditional paper, white bamboo cloth, or silk.
Without lighting, there is no show. The oil lamps of the past have been replaced by electric illumination, often six bulbs of 250 lumens each, in various colors for greater effect. But the heat is more than most people can stand.
Shadow puppet plays are fun to put on, and the puppets are not difficult to make. Many clubs and school theaters have put them to creative use in recent years.
"Making shadow puppets gives children a chance to exercise artistic creativity, writing the scripts trains them at composition, and putting on the shows stimulates their team-work and powers of expression," says Dr. Li Tien-k'ui, who believes that shadow puppets are well worth incorporating into school art courses or parent-child activities.
Putting together a shadow puppet theater in the home is not difficult. Just try it and see.
The packed houses of thirty or more years ago are fond memories for Chan g. And the shadow puppet plays he put on must likewise remain cherished by the audi ences that saw them. （photo courtesy of Chang Te-ch'eng）
The long lines aren't for E.T. They're waiting to see the the Monkey Kin g battle demons and monsters in a play by the Tung-hua Shadow Puppet Troupe. （photo cour tesy of Change-ch'eng）
Being proficient at painting, carving, musical accompaniment, script writing, dialogue, and singing. . . holding down the throne as the master of shadow puppets is not easy. The yellowing scripts are family heirlooms of the Changs and a precious source of information about shadow puppet plays on Taiwan.
Being proficient at painting, carving, musical accompaniment, script writing, dialogue, and singing. . . holding down the throne as the master of shadow puppets is not easy. The yellowing scripts are family heirlooms of the Changs and a precious source of information about shadow puppet plays on Taiwan.
Being proficient at painting, carving, musical accompaniment, script writing, dialogue, and singing. . . holding down the throne as the master of shadow puppets is not easy. The yellowing scripts are family heirlooms of the Changs and a precious source of information about shadow puppet plays on Taiwan.
The Changs are all adept at shadow puppets. At far left is the current chief performer of the family, Chang Fu-kuo, who is Chang Te-ch'eng's third eldest son.
Seeing the shadow puppets beside him, Chang's youngest grandson stops crying and his grandfather smiles along with him.
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