Pili's Golden Glow--Traditional Puppetry and the Commercial Mainstream

When it comes to traditional forms of theater like Taiwanese Opera, glove puppetry, shadow puppetry, or marionette theater, most have lost their audience and are past their prime, still respected for their religious and cultural significance but not really looked to as entertainment. Pili International Multimedia, however, has managed to work in a highly competitive, unforgiving market to carve out an immortal kingdom for its glove puppetry, achieving an average annual output value of NT$600 million. In the final analysis, the key to success lies in innovative content and mastery of a new era in media.

A fantastic puppet world

Against a background of undefined time and space, star character Su Huanzhen sometimes tricks others into thinking that he is dead or has surrendered. Clever, slick, and cunning, this kind of role-both good and bad, black and white-does not exist in traditional theater, but it certainly fits well with the values of modern viewers. Another superhuman character is the monk Yi Ye Shu: though already dead, he can return to life through reincarnation, possession, or by the power of a magical stone. In this theater where anything can happen, the shows put on by Pili are the truly fantastic legends in Taiwan glove puppetry. Produced with single-camera film production, cut-and-splice technology, and heavy animation, these dazzling battle scenes and amazing displays of magical power make a fantastic world of martial arts take shape for audiences, creating a new era of "high-tech" glove puppetry.

Founded as a commercial company in 1991, Pili specializes its work to into separate departments for scriptwriting, design, music, recording, dubbing, set design, direction, photography, and props, all devoted to creating attractive "content." The scriptwriting team, many of them Chinese literature majors, create deep, multifaceted characters and unique poems to accompany them when they come on screen. Combined with ultracool, elegant costume design, the main characters in Pili programs have become puppet celebrities with their own fan clubs, producing countless products in their wake.

According to Chris Huang, chairman of Pili International Multimedia, "In my opinion a successful concept for a work-in other words, the core creative idea-comes from reason, wisdom, and information. It's not enough just to have an innovative idea."

Never a theatrical troupe

Although for many years the main part of Pili's work was in glove puppet performances, they have always worked in the realms of both culture and business. Chris Huang argues that operators of a creative cultural enterprise "have to look at tradition from a popular perspective, and look at art from a business perspective" before they can achieve sustainability. Huang has moved beyond most cultural workers' rejection of business; from the beginning, in fact, he has oriented himself as the chair of a company.

With NT$150 million in capital, Pili's head office in Taipei and film studio in Huwei employ over 200 workers. More than half are in the production departments that form the core of its operations.

Faced with the pressure to produce two new episodes every week, the scriptwriting group meets every day to discuss the shows, while four separate crews shoot new scenes. "If you're going to have a business, you need to have volume, and that will only work if you approach it as a production line," says Jill Huang, executive director for Pili's international marketing department.

Each week's new shows circulate first on the video rental market. They are the only Taiwanese films that can compete with Hollywood productions, and are currently Pili's greatest source of income. Previous releases then continue to be replayed on E-Pili Networks. Aside from the additional profits from these broadcasts, says Jill Huang, "We use the reach of cable TV to advertise and to build up new audiences, so that the shows become a part of mainstream culture."

Pili always has an ear to the ground for new trends. In 1995, looking to increase programming content for its satellite network, Pili started broadcasting Korean soap operas in afternoon time slots popular with women viewers. Royalties for these tearjerkers were much cheaper than shows from Japan, and when Pili dubbed them into Taiwanese for broadcast, they became trendsetters in bringing Korean TV to Taiwan.

Seizing on new media

In addition to integrating technology into production work, in the sales arena Pili is always looking for the newest emerging media that it can use to promote glove puppetry. "Grandpa [Huang Hai-dai] spent 20 years establishing a reputation across the country, while dad [Huang Chun-hsiung] used television to make a name for himself overnight," says Chris Huang. "Mastering the newest media is absolutely crucial."

For these reasons, Pili has thoroughly mastered the application of media as they have developed from television to the cinema and to computers. As the company has moved from dominance in the video market to its satellite network and, finally, to an unlimited reach through its Internet business, it has relied on cross-industry alliances to develop a number of related products.

When its NT$300 million film Legend of the Sacred Stone was released, Pili adopted a comprehensive cross-industry marketing strategy with Chinatrust (Taiwan's largest credit card issuer), Uni-President (the country's largest food and retailing group), and with the ever-popular Toyota car company. This strategy resulted in a successful marketing campaign and ticket receipts of over NT$100 million that broke a 15-year record for films made in Taiwan.

Aside from the Pili dolls, puzzles, letter openers, and mugs put out by the company itself, other merchandise includes video games made under license by software companies such as 3Wave, Softstar, and Softworld. Pili Publications, established in cooperation with Cite Publishing Group, is devoted to releasing comics, novels, reviews, and photo collections related to Pili content.

"Income from related products now makes up about one fifth of the company's total income," says Jill Huang. "We hope that will gradually reach four fifths." For this reason, with an eye toward children in kindergarten and primary school, Pili is currently planning glove puppet shows suited to children's tastes as well as educational programs hosted by glove puppets.

In the future, Pili will also operate its Huwei studios in a variety of ways. A combined museum and entertainment area will be both a local and global film space. When the THSR Huwei station opens, will this clan of traditional puppeteers be racing toward the future along with the streamlined high-speed trains?