Xu Wang was born in 1936, during the period of Japanese occupation, in a house on Theater Street, Xinzhuang District, Xinzhuang County, Taipei Prefecture. His father, Xu Tianfu, was the founder of Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe. Xu Wang began to study puppetry skills with his father at the age of five, and officially became the head of the troupe at the age of sixteen. After Xu Tianfu retired, Xu Wang officially took over Xiaoxiyuan and became the second-generation head of the troupe. Xu Wang is proficient in all aspects of traditional puppet shows - he is a writer, director, and performer. He is reputed as the “champion of puppetry” among those in puppetry circles. In the 1960s, his performance of Dragon Head and Golden Swordsman was popular in the greater Taipei area for 12 consecutive years. Fans autonomously organized a “chair convention”, with “at least 500 in attendance”, to watch Xu's performances. In the 1970s, his puppet show Golden Flute Paladin was featured on a China Television program, and Xu became a popular figure. In 2001, he won the 5th National Awards for Arts in the Performing Arts category, and in 2004 was awarded with Taiwan Drama Award in the 11th Global Chinese Culture and Art Legacy. In 2004, he suffered a stroke, which caused hemiplegia in his right limb and difficulties in speaking. However, Xu Wang still adheres to his mission of passing down traditional culture. Currently, Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe is in its fifth generation of leadership, and continues to promote traditional puppet show culture.
The master-apprentice system is very important for passing down traditional culture. Incoming glove-puppetry (poo-te-hi) performers can learn many things from the masters: the expressive dialogue techniques and how to operate puppets, yes, but they can also observe from the master's actions how to interact with people and the strictures of how to manage a puppet troupe. In this way, good traditions are passed down through the master's influence. The Seden Society has a saying about master-apprentice relationships: “The troupe leader chooses the troupe leader's apprentice”. The same words could be said about Xu Wang and Huang Minglong.
In August 2022, the Seden Traditional Theater's The Tiger-Hero of Ponkan had its first performance at Dadaocheng Theater. On that day, founders of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation Professor Yang Weizhe and President Chen Rongxiang attended the show. Before the performance, Huang Minglong, the main performer, introduced his mentor, Xu Wang, to the audience. Huang Minglong said that when master Xu was performing at the Bao'an Temple in Taipei in 2004, he suddenly collapsed due to a stroke. Huang will never forget that when master Xu got into the ambulance, he slowly raised his hand, retracting his middle, ring and small fingers, and pointing his index finger up, using the “inviting the puppets to perform” gesture to express his concern for glove puppetry. Thinking about that moment, Huang Minglong cannot help but get choked with emotion. He invited master Xu to sit before the stage and give the opening performance for the new puppet show. When Xu Wang slowly performed his “inviting the puppets to perform” gesture, the audience was moved and gave him a standing ovation.
After the end of that day's Tiger-Hero of Ponkan performance, Xu Wang also nodded his head frequently to praise the performance. He also introduced Huang Minglong's son to everyone, praising the son's mastery in Beiguan instruments. Xu hoped that the younger generation would receive good guidance. It was a joyful gathering, a gathering of three generations of traditional puppetry in one place.
The mentoring friendship between Xu Wang and Huang Minglong is deeply connected to the Seden Foundation. The matter requires starting with the details of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation's establishment.
By the 1980s, the culture of puppetry had gradually declined, and traditional puppet performers' social status was at a low point. To preserve and promote traditional culture, Chen Jinci, Li Hongxi, and Yang Weizhe, three National Taiwan University professors, came up with the idea of establishing a puppet show foundation. This foundation would preserve important cultural objects of traditional puppetry, and establish historical narratives focused on Taiwan. Yang Weizhe happened to have an opportunity to watch a performance by the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe, and was amazed at how well the troupe had preserved the essence of puppetry. Another of the founders, Chen Jinci, had been a fan of Xu Wang since his childhood. The three professors thus went to the Xiaoxiyuan together and invited Xu Wang to serve as a consultant of the Seden Foundation. Xu Wang agreed to participate in the joint planning. From these humble beginnings, the three professors and one expert consultant formed the Seden Foundation.
As Huang Minglong recalls it, Xu Wang put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into founding the Seden Foundation. The first thing to do was fundraising for the planning stages. The foundation needed a million NTD in funding to be established. For this reason, Xu Wang and his wife took the initiative to raise funds; they personally paid a visit to Cai Chennan, president of Cathay Trust Investment Corporation. Xu also performed Ma'anshan and many other benefit shows to help bring the Foundation smoothly into existence. Xu was also invited by the Foundation to give several lectures in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Taiwan University, in which he personally demonstrated the techniques of glove puppetry. As for the carvings for the Seden Foundation's performance stage, Xu was also busy running around trying to raise funds. In 1985, at the ceremony for the inauguration of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation, the performing stage that had required a year and nearly NT $1 million was used for the first time. At the opening ceremony, Xu Wang from Xiaoxiyuan and Li Tianlu from I Wan Jan were invited to perform Tianbo Tower. For the first time in decades, the two masters performed together on a single stage, which made the Seden Foundation quite the sensation for a while. Later, due to his busy troupe work schedule, Xu was less involved in the affairs of the Seden Foundation, but he continued to care about the Foundation.
In the 30+ years since its establishment, the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation has gone to many communities and schools to organize puppet show workshops. The Foundation encourages young people everywhere who are interested in puppetry to join, even if they have no relevant experience. In 1990, the Seden Glove Puppetry Experimental Theater was established to provide students an opportunity to perform on the stage. The Experimental Theater also created opportunities for Huang Minglong to get involved in puppetry.
In 1997, Huang Minglong was working in the banking industry; that year, he happened to be transferred to Taipei. Fascinated with puppetry since his childhood, Huang says, “Puppetry was my only motivation to survive in Taipei!” He signed up for a Seden Society workshop with enthusiasm. At the time, Zhong Renbi, Huang Haidai, and Li Tianlu were his teachers. They were people he had admired since he was a child, and now he could learn directly from them. “The Seden Foundation welcomes new people to join; those who have an interest can gradually transform from amateurs to experts, can learn the skills of puppetry.” He says that the Seden Foundation is a big, open family. For an inexperienced outsider who was already getting on in years, the Seden Foundation was still willing to offer training sources.
In 2000, Huang Minglong was successful in his studies, and formally joined the Seden Traditional Theater (formerly the Seden Glove Puppetry Experimental Theater). At the encouragement of the then-head of the Theater, Zhang Juncheng, Huang took on a leading role performance. In 2002, Ximending's Red House Theater invited Xiaoxiyuan, Hsin Hsing Ku, and the Seden Foundation to perform. Xiaoxiyuan and Hsin Hsing Ku are both time-honored puppetry troupes; this made the members of the Seden Traditional Theater a bit nervous. Huang Minglong was the head of the Theater at the time. Like a newborn calf knowing not to be afraid of tigers, Huang thoroughly prepared the script Tiger Aunt that he wrote to compete with the big-name masters. Huang's blockbuster performance impressed Xu Wang deeply; Xu provided Huang with some performing suggestions. Tiger Aunt was adapted into Red Boy vs. Tiger Aunt, and then performed the next year. Getting to meet Xu Wang gave Huang the idea of becoming Xu Wang's apprentice.
In March 2003, the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe held a performance at the Dalongdong Bao'an Temple. On the eve of the performance, the audience and gods such as Baosheng Dadi, Xiqin Wangye, and Tiandu Yuanshuai acted as witnesses to a formal ceremony: Xu Wang, head of the troupe, accepted Huang Minglong, head of the Seden Traditional Theater, and Qiu Fengrong, the frontstage performer, as his disciples. At the time, Xu Wang was facing his sixty-eighth birthday; he told everyone that this was the best birthday present he had ever received. He expressed hopes that his disciples will make efforts to promote and preserve the culture of glove puppetry.
After Huang Minglong wish to become Xu Wang's disciple came true, Huang hoped that his performance could become more refined. During the SARS epidemic, many troupes stopped performing, but Xu was very determined, and went to Xinzhuang to teach Huang Minglong every week. Unfortunately, the next year, Xu suffered a stroke during a performance, and was no longer able to teach his apprentices the art of puppetry. However, Xu provided Huang Minglong with the many classic audio-visual and hand-written script materials that he had created over the years; Xu held back no secrets, allowing Huang to find his way through all the tricks of the trade. Xu would then observe Huang's performance and provide him suggestions. Xu Wang told Huang Minglong that “It's is fine if you cannot perform long scripts; but you must still learn the basics of puppetry. These are your basic materials. I have taught you how oil, salt, and other seasonings work in a dish. Now, go find the food ingredients yourself, and create your own dishes.” In the early times, Taiwanese puppet performances were mostly based on traditional Chinese operas, but Huang Minglong has been creating new scripts for the past 20 years. New scripts still use the traditional materials - what the master called “oil, salt, and other seasonings” - and contemporary elements as well as elements of local culture. He has combined these into one good show after another. For example, The Tiger-Hero of Ponkan is based on a famous Taiwanese folk tale. Huang Minglong rewrote the story of Lord Tiger's rescue of Prince Jiaqing to make it appropriate for parents and children to enjoy together.
Huang Minglong originally had the idea of establishing another troupe, and specifically asked master Xu for instructions. However, the master encouraged him to pass down what the Seden Foundation has been doing and said, “It would be a great pity if the Seden Foundation disappeared!” From this discussion, we can see how Xu has cherished the Seden Foundation 's contributions. Xu's words also strengthened Huang Minglong's resolve to make sure the Seden Foundation continues long into the future.
With master Xu's expectations upon him, Huang Minglong does not neglect his duties. At present, there are six or seven basic members of the Seden Traditional Theater. Everyone has a full-time job, but they take puppetry seriously and take time out of their busy schedules to get together and sharpen their puppetry skills. The Theater's endeavors have gained them opportunities to perform at the Taipei Children's Art Festival and the Traditional Art Festival. The Theater has also been awarded the Golden Palm Award for puppet performances four times.
Both the master and the apprentice believe that the most important thing is to pass down traditional puppetry. In 1998, the Executive Yuan's Council for Cultural Affairs commissioned the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe to organize the three-year Taiwan Classical Puppet Show Performing Talent Training Project. Xu Wang organized teaching materials and wrote textbooks for the Project. Through basic teaching materials such as Xu Wang Explains the Story: Qinglongguan, Xu Wang Explains the Story: Reunion of Husband and Wife, and Xu Wang Explains the Story: Fuchu Palace, Xu uses a step-by-step method to teach puppet plays ranging from the wu (martial) style that are difficult to learn but easy to get the gist of, to the wen (literary) style that is easy to begin with but difficult to master. His curricula begin with things that are easier and progress to things that are more difficult. Students taught by Xu are still performing and continue to cultivate new generations of performers, which is the most gratifying thing for Xu Wang. For Huang Minglong, what he admires the most is when seniors who have already accumulated such achievements at this stage of their lives still have such motivation and enthusiasm. Huang follows his teacher's footsteps by opening new paths for passing down the traditions of glove puppetry. Huang currently lives in Hualien; he noted that there aren't many puppet shows in Hualien, so he cooperated with the East Coast Culture and Education Foundation for the Puppet Show Bus tour program. This program is already in its sixth year. Huang and the Seden Traditional Theater's members, with simple stages, musical instruments, and puppets, go to the elementary and middle school campuses along the east coast to perform. Huang Minglong believes that puppet shows can hold the attention of both adults and children. If younger generations get to know more about Taiwan's culture and history through puppetry, that will be a sustainable direction for development. He hopes to continue to pass down traditional culture through public performances and touring teaching programs. He also hopes that younger generations will find their own paths.
Huang Minglong, born in Pingtung, works in the finance and banking industry. During a work transfer to Taipei, he joined a workshop organized by the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation and became a member of the traditional puppetry theater. He had an opportunity to join the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe, and became Xu Wang's twelfth disciple. Huang currently lives in Hualien and works in E. Sun Commercial Bank. He performs in the Seden Traditional Theater in his spare time. Huang's performances feature local stories, hoping to help younger generations learn the culture of this land through glove-puppet shows.
Xu Wang's life is a living history of Taiwan's glove-puppetry (poo-te-hi). Xu's apprentice Huang Minglong carries on his master's wishes, devoting himself to the promotion of puppetry through the Seden Society.
The master-apprentice system is very important for passing down traditional culture. Incoming glove-puppetry (poo-te-hi) performers can learn many things from the masters: the expressive dialogue techniques and how to operate puppets, yes, but they can also observe from the master's actions how to interact with people and the strictures of how to manage a puppet troupe. In this way, good traditions are passed down through the master's influence. The Seden Society has a saying about master-apprentice relationships: “The troupe leader chooses the troupe leader's apprentice”. The same words could be said about Xu Wang and Huang Minglong.
In August 2022, the Seden Traditional Theater's The Tiger-Hero of Ponkan had its first performance at Dadaocheng Theater. On that day, founders of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation Professor Yang Weizhe and President Chen Rongxiang attended the show. Before the performance, Huang Minglong, the main performer, introduced his mentor, Xu Wang, to the audience. Huang Minglong said that when master Xu was performing at the Bao'an Temple in Taipei in 2004, he suddenly collapsed due to a stroke. Huang will never forget that when master Xu got into the ambulance, he slowly raised his hand, retracting his middle, ring and small fingers, and pointing his index finger up, using the “inviting the puppets to perform” gesture to express his concern for glove puppetry. Thinking about that moment, Huang Minglong cannot help but get choked with emotion. He invited master Xu to sit before the stage and give the opening performance for the new puppet show. When Xu Wang slowly performed his “inviting the puppets to perform” gesture, the audience was moved and gave him a standing ovation.
After the end of that day's Tiger-Hero of Ponkan performance, Xu Wang also nodded his head frequently to praise the performance. He also introduced Huang Minglong's son to everyone, praising the son's mastery in Beiguan instruments. Xu hoped that the younger generation would receive good guidance. It was a joyful gathering, a gathering of three generations of traditional puppetry in one place.
The mentoring friendship between Xu Wang and Huang Minglong is deeply connected to the Seden Foundation. The matter requires starting with the details of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation's establishment.
By the 1980s, the culture of puppetry had gradually declined, and traditional puppet performers' social status was at a low point. To preserve and promote traditional culture, Chen Jinci, Li Hongxi, and Yang Weizhe, three National Taiwan University professors, came up with the idea of establishing a puppet show foundation. This foundation would preserve important cultural objects of traditional puppetry, and establish historical narratives focused on Taiwan. Yang Weizhe happened to have an opportunity to watch a performance by the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe, and was amazed at how well the troupe had preserved the essence of puppetry. Another of the founders, Chen Jinci, had been a fan of Xu Wang since his childhood. The three professors thus went to the Xiaoxiyuan together and invited Xu Wang to serve as a consultant of the Seden Foundation. Xu Wang agreed to participate in the joint planning. From these humble beginnings, the three professors and one expert consultant formed the Seden Foundation.
As Huang Minglong recalls it, Xu Wang put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into founding the Seden Foundation. The first thing to do was fundraising for the planning stages. The foundation needed a million NTD in funding to be established. For this reason, Xu Wang and his wife took the initiative to raise funds; they personally paid a visit to Cai Chennan, president of Cathay Trust Investment Corporation. Xu also performed Ma'anshan and many other benefit shows to help bring the Foundation smoothly into existence. Xu was also invited by the Foundation to give several lectures in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Taiwan University, in which he personally demonstrated the techniques of glove puppetry. As for the carvings for the Seden Foundation's performance stage, Xu was also busy running around trying to raise funds. In 1985, at the ceremony for the inauguration of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation, the performing stage that had required a year and nearly NT $1 million was used for the first time. At the opening ceremony, Xu Wang from Xiaoxiyuan and Li Tianlu from I Wan Jan were invited to perform Tianbo Tower. For the first time in decades, the two masters performed together on a single stage, which made the Seden Foundation quite the sensation for a while. Later, due to his busy troupe work schedule, Xu was less involved in the affairs of the Seden Foundation, but he continued to care about the Foundation.
In the 30+ years since its establishment, the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation has gone to many communities and schools to organize puppet show workshops. The Foundation encourages young people everywhere who are interested in puppetry to join, even if they have no relevant experience. In 1990, the Seden Glove Puppetry Experimental Theater was established to provide students an opportunity to perform on the stage. The Experimental Theater also created opportunities for Huang Minglong to get involved in puppetry.
In 1997, Huang Minglong was working in the banking industry; that year, he happened to be transferred to Taipei. Fascinated with puppetry since his childhood, Huang says, “Puppetry was my only motivation to survive in Taipei!” He signed up for a Seden Society workshop with enthusiasm. At the time, Zhong Renbi, Huang Haidai, and Li Tianlu were his teachers. They were people he had admired since he was a child, and now he could learn directly from them. “The Seden Foundation welcomes new people to join; those who have an interest can gradually transform from amateurs to experts, can learn the skills of puppetry.” He says that the Seden Foundation is a big, open family. For an inexperienced outsider who was already getting on in years, the Seden Foundation was still willing to offer training sources.
In 2000, Huang Minglong was successful in his studies, and formally joined the Seden Traditional Theater (formerly the Seden Glove Puppetry Experimental Theater). At the encouragement of the then-head of the Theater, Zhang Juncheng, Huang took on a leading role performance. In 2002, Ximending's Red House Theater invited Xiaoxiyuan, Hsin Hsing Ku, and the Seden Foundation to perform. Xiaoxiyuan and Hsin Hsing Ku are both time-honored puppetry troupes; this made the members of the Seden Traditional Theater a bit nervous. Huang Minglong was the head of the Theater at the time. Like a newborn calf knowing not to be afraid of tigers, Huang thoroughly prepared the script Tiger Aunt that he wrote to compete with the big-name masters. Huang's blockbuster performance impressed Xu Wang deeply; Xu provided Huang with some performing suggestions. Tiger Aunt was adapted into Red Boy vs. Tiger Aunt, and then performed the next year. Getting to meet Xu Wang gave Huang the idea of becoming Xu Wang's apprentice.
In March 2003, the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe held a performance at the Dalongdong Bao'an Temple. On the eve of the performance, the audience and gods such as Baosheng Dadi, Xiqin Wangye, and Tiandu Yuanshuai acted as witnesses to a formal ceremony: Xu Wang, head of the troupe, accepted Huang Minglong, head of the Seden Traditional Theater, and Qiu Fengrong, the frontstage performer, as his disciples. At the time, Xu Wang was facing his sixty-eighth birthday; he told everyone that this was the best birthday present he had ever received. He expressed hopes that his disciples will make efforts to promote and preserve the culture of glove puppetry.
After Huang Minglong wish to become Xu Wang's disciple came true, Huang hoped that his performance could become more refined. During the SARS epidemic, many troupes stopped performing, but Xu was very determined, and went to Xinzhuang to teach Huang Minglong every week. Unfortunately, the next year, Xu suffered a stroke during a performance, and was no longer able to teach his apprentices the art of puppetry. However, Xu provided Huang Minglong with the many classic audio-visual and hand-written script materials that he had created over the years; Xu held back no secrets, allowing Huang to find his way through all the tricks of the trade. Xu would then observe Huang's performance and provide him suggestions. Xu Wang told Huang Minglong that “It's is fine if you cannot perform long scripts; but you must still learn the basics of puppetry. These are your basic materials. I have taught you how oil, salt, and other seasonings work in a dish. Now, go find the food ingredients yourself, and create your own dishes.” In the early times, Taiwanese puppet performances were mostly based on traditional Chinese operas, but Huang Minglong has been creating new scripts for the past 20 years. New scripts still use the traditional materials - what the master called “oil, salt, and other seasonings” - and contemporary elements as well as elements of local culture. He has combined these into one good show after another. For example, The Tiger-Hero of Ponkan is based on a famous Taiwanese folk tale. Huang Minglong rewrote the story of Lord Tiger's rescue of Prince Jiaqing to make it appropriate for parents and children to enjoy together.
Huang Minglong originally had the idea of establishing another troupe, and specifically asked master Xu for instructions. However, the master encouraged him to pass down what the Seden Foundation has been doing and said, “It would be a great pity if the Seden Foundation disappeared!” From this discussion, we can see how Xu has cherished the Seden Foundation 's contributions. Xu's words also strengthened Huang Minglong's resolve to make sure the Seden Foundation continues long into the future.
With master Xu's expectations upon him, Huang Minglong does not neglect his duties. At present, there are six or seven basic members of the Seden Traditional Theater. Everyone has a full-time job, but they take puppetry seriously and take time out of their busy schedules to get together and sharpen their puppetry skills. The Theater's endeavors have gained them opportunities to perform at the Taipei Children's Art Festival and the Traditional Art Festival. The Theater has also been awarded the Golden Palm Award for puppet performances four times.
Both the master and the apprentice believe that the most important thing is to pass down traditional puppetry. In 1998, the Executive Yuan's Council for Cultural Affairs commissioned the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe to organize the three-year Taiwan Classical Puppet Show Performing Talent Training Project. Xu Wang organized teaching materials and wrote textbooks for the Project. Through basic teaching materials such as Xu Wang Explains the Story: Qinglongguan, Xu Wang Explains the Story: Reunion of Husband and Wife, and Xu Wang Explains the Story: Fuchu Palace, Xu uses a step-by-step method to teach puppet plays ranging from the wu (martial) style that are difficult to learn but easy to get the gist of, to the wen (literary) style that is easy to begin with but difficult to master. His curricula begin with things that are easier and progress to things that are more difficult. Students taught by Xu are still performing and continue to cultivate new generations of performers, which is the most gratifying thing for Xu Wang. For Huang Minglong, what he admires the most is when seniors who have already accumulated such achievements at this stage of their lives still have such motivation and enthusiasm. Huang follows his teacher's footsteps by opening new paths for passing down the traditions of glove puppetry. Huang currently lives in Hualien; he noted that there aren't many puppet shows in Hualien, so he cooperated with the East Coast Culture and Education Foundation for the Puppet Show Bus tour program. This program is already in its sixth year. Huang and the Seden Traditional Theater's members, with simple stages, musical instruments, and puppets, go to the elementary and middle school campuses along the east coast to perform. Huang Minglong believes that puppet shows can hold the attention of both adults and children. If younger generations get to know more about Taiwan's culture and history through puppetry, that will be a sustainable direction for development. He hopes to continue to pass down traditional culture through public performances and touring teaching programs. He also hopes that younger generations will find their own paths.
Chen Xihuang is the only traditional glove puppetry (poo-te-hi) performer in Taiwan who has been awarded with two national titles by the Ministry of Culture, “Preserver of Important Traditional Puppetry” and “Preserver of Prop Production Technologies for Classic Puppetry Clothes, Helmets, and Hats”. Chen is now the head of Chen Xihuang Traditional Puppetry Troupe. He was born in 1931. Chen's father, Li Tianlu, was a renowned puppet master, and his grandfather was Chen A-lai, the head of the Lehuayuan puppetry troupe. In 1953, Chen Xihuang started his own puppetry troupe and established Xinwanran. In 1975, Xinwanran was disbanded. In 2009, Chen Xihuang Traditional Puppetry Troupe was formed again, and the troupe has continued to perform since then.
Today, Chen Xihuang is a 91-year-old nationally-acclaimed performing artist. His father, Li Tianlu, was a renowned master of Taipei's I Wan Jan Puppet(poo-te-hi) Theater. Chen Xihuang's grandfather was Chen A-Lai, leader of the Lehuayuan ("Garden of Happiness") puppetry troupe. Being born into a family of glove-puppetry performers thus shaped Chen Xihuang's performing career. Chen Xihuang was born in 1931. Because his father Li Tianlu married into the Chen family, according to the agreement, the eldest son must adopt his mother's surname. This is why, unlike most sons in Taiwan who carry their father's surname, Chen has a different surname from his father. It was also in 1931 that Li Tianlu established the I Wan Jan ("A Perfect Likeness") Puppet Theater. Twenty years later, in 1953, Chen Xihuang became a performing master in his own right and established the independent Xinwanran ("A New Likeness") puppetry troupe to tour the greater Taipei area. His skills both onstage and behind the scenes were exemplary, which earned him a good reputation. In 1975, owing to a general decline in the environment for puppetry, Xinwanran was disbanded. In 2009, the Chen Xihuang Traditional Puppetry Troupe was formed again, and has continued to perform to the present. Chen is the only traditional glove puppetry performer in Taiwan to be awarded both Ministry of Culture national titles, “Preserver of Important Traditional Puppetry” and “Preserver of Prop Production Technologies for Classic Puppetry Clothes, Helmets, and Hats.” His major works include Flying Sword and Paladin¹ and Marriage By Chance² among others.
In the 1940s, glove-puppet shows were very popular, and the I Wan Jan Puppet Theater, established by Chen's father Li Tianlu, rose to fame rapidly. Young Chen observed his father to learn how to perform. Later, he spent some time in central and southern Taiwan, where he learned different performing techniques from Zhong Renxiang of the Hsin Hsing Ku Puppet Show Troupe. Chen thus learned the unique performing styles of both the north and the south, from which he developed his own performing style. To perform on TV, after the 1950s Chen Xihuang began to study more delicate puppet manipulation techniques. However, the highly-produced Golden Light puppetry was becoming the mainstream, and traditional puppetry was gradually declining. Although some scholars paid attention to traditional puppetry, the market gradually shrank. Chen had no choice but to disband the Xinwanran troupe.
Later, Chen Xihuang started a world tour of creative puppet show. In coming in contact with the world, he finally realized that he was a world-class puppet master, and the traditional puppetry skills he possesses needed to be preserved and passed down to younger generations. In 2008, at nearly 80 years of age, Chen once more took up the heavy task of promoting traditional culture, and established the Chen Xihuang Traditional Puppetry Troupe. The troupe went on an international tour. To anyone interested in learning puppetry — whether a young person with no foundation in the field, or a foreigner who doesn't even know the Taiwanese (Hoklo) language — Chen is willing to impart his knowledge and skills. His teaching includes onstage puppet manipulation, backstage wind instrument music, costume production, and more. He keeps no secrets.
Chen Xihuang interprets puppetry roles with consummate skill. With adroit hand movements, every character he performs seems to come alive with. Chen also specializes in the production of puppet helmets, weapons, props, and other arts. He makes puppets' clothes and the sewing patterns for them all by himself. The three-dimensional hats he makes have undergone continuous improvement, so that they will not easily fall off during performances. The color matching of his puppets' clothes is also elegant and is popular among puppet performers. In recent years, Chen's crafted works have become popular among art collectors.
In 1985, at the founding ceremony for the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation, nationally acclaimed performers such as Li Tianlu from I Wan Jan and Xu Wang from Xiaoxiyuan were invited to perform together on same stage. After this event, one of the founders of the Foundation, Professor Chen Jinci from National Taiwan University, invited Li Tianlu to teach at the Seden Foundation. Li agreed and recommended his eldest son, Chen Xihuang, to teach courses, in hopes that the torch of glove puppetry can be handed down, generation to generation.
In the olden days, there were relatively few public entertainment activities in Taiwanese society. In those days when even radio programs were not yet popular, people came to the puppet stage not only to "watch the performance", not just to see the performers' manipulation skills, but also to "listen to the performance". “Our puppet manipulation techniques are all quite deep. For example, in your dialogue, voices, and puppet expression, you have to have chemistry with the audience; dialogue itself is a very deep discipline". Chen emphasizes that having dialogue that can catch the audience's attention is the key to a successful performance. If a puppet performer doesn't get into their characters' emotions, but only recites what's in the script — or if the performer's voices don't hit on what the audience wants — then the performer will only be able to continue as an assistant, and will be unable to become a master performer. “In addition, it is important to distinguish puppets' different characteristics: How this character needs to walk, how they need to talk… these are all very deep disciplines. Puppets' movements have to be vivid; only then will the audience like them."
When Chen Xihuang thinks back on the Seden Foundation, he recalls what has impressed him most: at the beginning, the three professors purchased a lot of puppets to support traditional culture of puppetry, which cost them a lot of money. Chen sighs and says that it is really difficult to operate a puppetry troupe. He established the Xinwanran puppetry troupe at the age of 23 when he was young and in high spirits; but in the 1970s, the culture of puppets performed on public stages gradually declined. He often couldn't find people with backstage experience, and had no choice but to disband the troupe. Thus, when he looks back on the rise and fall of the Seden Foundation, he can understand the difficulties the group has had in its operations.
Speaking on the rise and fall of glove-puppet show culture, Chen Xihuang recalls that when he was a child, upon hearing the sudden sound of gongs and drums and Beiguan music outside, he would dash out immediately to see the puppet performance, even if he had just picked up a bowl and chopsticks to eat. He always had to hear the opening chords of the performance. He laments that children nowadays do not understand the Taiwanese (Hoklo) language and cannot appreciate the art of the dialogue in Taiwanese.
“Our Taiwanese language is the most beautiful language in the world. Glove puppetry has to have Taiwanese language!”
Introduced by his father Li Tianlu, Chen Xihuang and his younger brother Li Chuancan went to an elementary school to teach. At the time, the school had no funds, no puppets, and no gongs and drums. Yet he and his younger brother had no complaints. With their own puppet masters and resources, they devoted themselves to teaching for more than three years. Yet sadly, the local language environment is also facing a generational crisis. Chen Xihuang is worried that the loss of Taiwanese language and culture will cause traditional puppet culture to disappear along with it. In an environment where children do not understand the spoken Taiwanese language, and even have no interest in traditional puppetry, there will be no new generations writing scripts in Taiwanese, much less pouring out their hearts to study how puppetry is performed through Taiwanese language.
Because of this, when Chen was 79 years old, he came back to establish the Chen Xihuang Traditional Puppetry Troupe. He was reluctant to let this fine traditional culture gradually disappear. “As I see it, if glove puppetry is going to go away, if this aspect of culture disappears, that would really be a pity. This is why I started to work again in my retirement years, at the age of 79. I try my best to teach young generations who want to learn puppetry. That is what got me started again.” Over the past few decades, Chen has witnessed the gradual disappearance of puppetry arts, and gained a deep sense of how difficult it is to preserve traditional culture. He has devoted himself to teaching workshops, with the principle that he will teach anyone who is willing to learn. Chen even teaches his unique techniques, keeping none of them secret. He decides what to teach and how to get children interested in puppetry based on their ages. Children can start with playing with puppets in whatever ways they like. With their bigger palms and better command of puppets' movements, he teaches middle-school students more about how to control puppets and the skills of spoken Taiwanese-language dialogue.
Chen believes that if puppets become just museum displays, puppetry as a form of traditional culture will eventually disappear. The vitality of puppetry culture must be shown on the public stage, and puppet performances need audiences to watch and listen to them — only in this way can tradition truly be passed on. The craft and techniques of puppet theater need to transformation for a new era, too, by adding new cultural elements. As a puppet master who is renowned as a "master of all trades", even though he's now 90 years old, is always thinking about how to make the glorious art of puppetry perpetuate eternally. Thus, the famous saying goes, “Before one has passed on what one knows, vow to grow old but never rest”.
For Chen Xihuang, the philosophy and operation of the Seden Foundation provide an example of how to pass down experience. He sincerely hopes that government agencies and enterprise will make efforts together to sow the seeds for education in traditional culture.
¹Flying Sword and Paladin (Feijian Qixia) was originally a martial arts fiction written by Jiang Yinxiang of Guwu. It was published in 1929, and later adapted into a classic puppet show about a swordsman.
²Marriage by Chance (Qiaoyu Yinyuan) is about a hero saving a beauty. Chen Xihuang's traditional puppetry troupe once performed the play in New York and Atlanta. It was adapted into a version with no dialogue, so that foreigners who do not understand Taiwanese (Hoklo) can grasp the beauty of glove-puppetry.
Jiang Cimei is the founder of the Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company. She was born in Nantou in 1933. Jiang was influenced by her father, who was a musician in a performing troupe. From the age of sixteen, she became first a puppet master, and then a substitute singer. Since then, Jiang has been performing for her entire life. She co-founded the Simeilou glove-puppetry (poo-te-hi) troupe with her father and brothers, and became the leading puppet master. In the 1970s, she established first the Jin Kwei Lo and then the Xinkuaile puppet troupe. From 2007 to 2011, she led the Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company to tour the United States and France. As a first-generation female puppet performer in Taiwan's traditional glove puppetry, she has been active in traditional theater for more than 70 years. In the book Survey and Research of Taiwanese Glove Puppetry Actresses, Xie Dexi from the Seden Foundation honors her with the title of The Dragon Goddess of the Sea of Plays.
Girl in the boudoir does not go out the door
She works with needle and thread forevermore
Worried whether she will ever find a mate
Sighing that the matchmaker god is so late
At the age of 88, with a voice that speaks of a life of ups and downs, Jiang Cimei sings the heart-song of the girl in the boudoir. Jiang laughs, saying that in so many years, “this is my first time singing this song. It's really fun.” She made her debut on stage with this song at the age of 16. More than 70 years have passed. Jiang is not only from the first generation of female glove-puppet (Poo-te-hi) performers in Taiwan, but is also the driving force behind innovation in puppetry today. At one time, the Seden Foundation honored her with the title of "The Dragon Goddess of the Sea of Plays". She has become internationally renowned with this title.
Jiang Cimei, born in Sankuaicuo, Nantou in 1933, is the founder of the Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company. Her great-grandfather Jiang Renhou was good at doing fengshui (geomancy). He calculated what her fortune would be like based on the time of her birth, then exclaimed, “This girl's life will be really hard. She is destined to work hard and do the work that a man does.” Her hands are indeed a pair of hands that have seen much labor. From the age of sixteen or seventeen, she moved chairs, stools, and tables by herself, practicing the skills she would need for puppet performance, and figuring out how to imbue her puppet performances with spirit. She was talented and intelligent at a young age, and through self-learning, she could accurately grasp the emotional movements of various puppet characters — be it the mild temperance of a scholarly wensheng character, a young lady dan's light footsteps, the boldness and roughness of a wusheng character with martial art skills, or a humorous chou's funny footsteps. With her hand-working hands, she helped uplift the glory days of Taiwan's glove-puppet shows. In recent years, she has also helped her children and grandchildren's generations to help bring this art back to glory, and to take the international stage.
Jiang Cimei's lifelong relationship with glove puppetry results from the influence of her father, Jiang Tongsheng, who was a musician in a puppetry troupe. She recalled that in the third month of the lunar calendar in 1949, which was the big day of the goddess Mazu's birth, the troupe was severely short of staff. At that time, the patron would deduct money if they were short-handed, so her father asked her to help. The elders from that era often said: “The worst failure is to be a musician or a barber.” A saying even went that: “Parents who have no way to cope, send their children to learn the theater ropes.” Old concepts about social class held that being a musician or theater performer was a very hard job, with relatively low social status; thus, unless they had no other choice, few parents would be willing to let their children work in a puppetry troupe. Therefore, Jiang Cimei was reluctant to help, but owing to her father's dignity and her grandmother's persistent persuasion, she decided to help this one time. At the beginning, she was told to select puppets in the backstage and hand them over to puppet master. This work required a good eye and a fast hand; she couldn't grab the wrong puppet, nor even worse delay the performing rhythm of what was happening onstage. The wife of the head of the troupe taught her how to distinguish between good and bad characters, and also told her that characters that had died should be put on the ground and must never appear again. For Jiang Cimei, the memory of coming into contact with puppets for the first time is still as vivid as the day she was there. Back then, onstage, the troupe had puppet masters and puppet assistants, as well as several singers. The troupe leader's wife quickly taught her the song “The Wealthy Lady and the Beggar”, and asked her to take the stage as a substitute singer. It turned out that her singing caught the audience's attention; one audience member after another praised her for her good singing. Thus, Jiang was asked again by the troupe leader for help the next day. Since then, she has been “stuck” to glove puppetry; she has performed it for a lifetime.
In the past, glove-puppet shows performed in front of temples to express appreciation to the gods were called "temple shows". The performers were divided into the puppet master and the assistant. The puppet master was responsible for operating the puppets for lead characters and performing all dialogue. The assistant was then responsible for operating the supporting characters. From temple shows, Jiang Cimei took the opportunity to observe experienced puppet masters' performance skills from her perspective backstage. With continuous self-learning and an innate talent for dialogue, she gradually cultivated her performing style and co-founded the Simeilou glove puppetry troupe with her father and brothers. Jiang Cimei was the lead puppet master in the troupe. Her name gradually spread, and she became a renowned female puppet master. In the 1970s, the Jin Kwei Lo ("Truly Happy") and Xinkuaile ("Newly Happy") puppet troupes were established. Three generations of family members were performing together on a single stage.
Jiang Cimei is connected by a thread of fate to the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation. And the one who drew that thread between them is Zeng Wenlong, a member of the Seden Foundation board of directors. A long time ago, Jiang was invited to perform in Shuiwei, Nantou, where Zeng Wenlong lived; Zeng was deeply impressed by Jiang Cimei's performing style. When Jiang Cimei was 60 years old, at the advice of her family, she announced her retirement. Zeng Wenlong, who was a member of the board of directors of the Seden Foundation at the time, went to visit Jiang personally. He said that since Jiang Cimei was in good health, she should continue to perform; otherwise, it would be a great pity that puppetry fans would not get to see Jiang's performances anymore. At first, her family advised her to rest well, so Jiang Cimei declined.
Adhering to his passion for carrying on cultural heritage, Zeng visited Jiang again. He said, “Glove puppetry is now in decline. If you retire and stop doing it, this tradition will soon disappear.” He even invited the Jin Kwei Lo puppetry troupe to perform at the Seden Foundation. With the greater world changing, and puppetry culture in a gradual decline, Jiang Cimei was greatly moved by repeated visits and performance invitations from the Seden Foundation. She decided to perform again for a two-day show. It was due to this performance that she slowly returned to the stage and took up the puppets again.
In 1997, at the invitation of the Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation, the 65-year-old Jiang Cimei accepted a commission from the Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts to complete the book Survey and Research of Taiwanese Glove Puppetry Actresses. In addition, she cooperated with Firefly Image Company to complete the documentary titled Looking for the Forgotten Artists: Jiang Cimei. The film was awarded with the 1997 Golden Harvest Awards for Local Culture Documentary Film and was selected as an exhibited work for the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival.
Jiang Cimei has nothing but praise for the founders of the Seden Foundation such as Chen Jinci. In the fact of disdainful social currents toward puppetry and its performers in the early times, these professors set the precedent for intellectuals to care about traditional puppetry culture. Whenever Jiang appeared on the stage, a researcher from the Seden Foundation would come to record the performance and conduct fieldwork. Jiang Cimei remembers each and every action. Normally, when the media or other research organizations would come to collect material, they had to apply with the troupe first; but any researcher from the Seden Foundation would be allowed directly to the backstage for recording or fieldwork, like members of the family. She says with emotion that it's lucky that Seden was so foresighted at the time, and has preserved many precious historical materials, including performance records from when her career reached its peak.
In 2007, at the age of 75, Jiang Cimei was invited by the Ministry of Culture's Taipei Cultural Center in New York to lead Jin Kwei Lo puppetry troupe to perform in the United States. In 2009 and 2011, she was invited again for performance in the US. Later, she went to attend the Hungarian International Puppet Festival, the Paris Imagination Arts Festival, and the French World Puppet Festival to promote Taiwanese glove puppetry. She has performed in the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and other places to promote Taiwan's traditional culture. Her performance has been highly praised by international fans. As a first-generation female puppet performer, she has traced more than 70 years in Taiwan's traditional puppetry world. In the book Survey and Research of Taiwanese Glove Puppetry Actresses, Xie Dexi from the Seden Foundation honors Jiang with the title of “The Dragon Goddess of the Sea of Plays.”
As she looks back on her life, Jiang Cimei is grateful of the fact that the members of the Seden Foundation have maintained their enthusiasm for traditional culture. These members were not afraid to face changing times and a decline in puppetry culture. They continued to inject financial support and build social networks. Now precious historical records and objects are preserved at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. She is grateful that there were people in civil society who stepped forward to preserve traditional culture. This is a very nice thing.
Jiang is content that now her children and grandchildren will continue to perform puppetry that she has so devoted her life to. Their performances will bring innovation to glove puppetry. She also looks forward to the government and enterprises continuing to carry on and support the culture of traditional puppetry in the future.
Lin Jinlian is currently the leader of the Jingchuntang Puppetry Troupe. He was born in Hsinchu into a glove-puppet (poo-te-hi) show family in 1937. His father, Lin Xiang, was the head of Hsinchu's Jingchunyuan puppetry troupe. At the age of 14, he started his puppetry career and worked as a second (assistant) to a puppet master. At the age of 18, he travelled further north and became an apprentice in Li Tianlu's I Wan Jan Puppet Theater. In 1969, he became the lead puppet performer in the Siwanran Puppetry Troupe. Afterwards, Lin Jinlian and his junior colleagues started performing puppet shows independently. After the 1990s, he devoted himself to the study of rituals such as performing the Dance of Zhong Kui and drawing talismans in the Jingchuntang troupe. In the 1980s, he had gradually built good relationships with the Seden Foundation because of puppetry. At present, he is dedicated to the family's puppetry tradition of doing the Zhong Kui Dance with marionettes. Lin is one of the few nationally-acclaimed puppet masters who can perform the Zhong Kui Dance with marionettes.
If one mentions Lin Jinlian, most people in Taiwan will think of “the master of exorcism” and "master of the Zhong Kui Dance". The Zhong Kui Dance was originally a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits and pray for good fortune. Lin Jinlian is the first national treasure-level puppet master to perform this ceremony through puppetry. He uses hanging wires to manipulate the Zhong Kui puppet and perform the "drawing of talismans". Lin has developed a robust performance art. He is highly reputed in the international puppetry world, in the world of Daoist rituals, and in academia.
In the early times, a saying was popular in the world of traditional puppetry in Taiwan: “first, the marionettes; then, the glove-puppets”. This means that before the main glove puppet show (poo-te-hi) begins, there must first be a Zhong Kui Dance performed via marionette, an act that will first purify the stage. Performers in the early years all knew the skills required to perform the Zhong Kui Dance. Lin Jinlian's history in the art traces back to this same origin.
Lin Jinlian was born in Hsinchu into a puppet show family in 1937. His father, Lin Xiang, was the head of the Jingchunyuan puppetry troupe¹ in Hsinchu. At the age of fourteen, Lin Jinlian started his puppetry career and worked as a "second" (assistant) to his father², putting him on the path to becoming a mastery. Before the puppet show, it is required to perform the Zhong Kui Dance, an act of expelling evil spirits, Lin Jinlian had watched his father do the Zhong Kui Dance since he was a child. When he was 18 years old, Li Tianlu's I Wan Jan Puppet Theater came to Hsinchu for a performance. Lin Jinlian went to watch performances every day. One afternoon, the assistant suddenly ran away. This made the patron who had invited a performance anxious. Pacing back and forth in front of the stage, the patron suddenly spotted Lin Jinlian sitting in the distance. Knowing that he was the son of the head of the Jingchunyuan troupe, the patron hurried over to ask if Lin Jinlian could come back stage and save the day.
Owning to this unexpected opportunity, Li Tianlu saw this Hsinchu teenager's puppet manipulation skills. Li praised Lin Jinlian, “Your puppet manipulation gestures are very beautiful!” He then asked Lin with a smile, “Would you like to come to Taipei to study?” After watching the puppet performance for several days, Lin thought that, for one thing, this Taipei puppetry troupe's performance techniques were unique; for another, Lin had a desire to visit Taipei and see the world. So he went to Taipei to learn performance with Li Tianlu.
Lin Jinlian became Li Tianlu's apprentice at the age of 18. He started out in the troupe with miscellaneous tasks, and spent a lot of time learning the techniques of puppets manipulations. Once he did his service in the army, Lin returned to Hsinchu to take gigs doing performances all around. Finally, at the age of 27, he joined Jinyushe (the Brocaded Jade Society) in Xiluo, Yunlin³. He was marked for promotion by Zhan Baoyu, the lead female puppet master in the troupe; this was Lin Jinlian's first chance to become a lead puppet Master himself. In the world of glove puppetry, for a Second to become a Master in their own right is all about their ability to do dialogue. When it comes to speaking, attention must be particularly paid to the distinctness of the 'five voices', that is, the five basic opera roles:Sheng, dan, jing, mo, and chou. A puppet master must interpret all five voices vividly, while also having the master's own style. A puppet master's charm in speaking and personal flair will be reflected in how much puppetry fans like their performance. A superb puppet master can quickly shift roles, being a scholarly, refined sheng one moment and a zany, hilarious chou the next. Such a master is the life of a puppet show.
In the early years, public performances in northern Taiwan used relatively small puppets; audiences sitting in front of the stage could not see the puppet manipulation skills on display clearly. Instead, audiences' focus was on the dialogue. Lin Jinlian recalls that the life in the early years was simple; people would bring their families to watch puppet shows for hour after hour. A puppet show was the best form of entertainment. However, you wouldn't get applause just by opening your mouth; you had to have "chemistry with the audience". Some apprentices who had just started practicing being the main performer themselves would get upset if the audience complained about their voices. That would make it difficult for them to take on the major responsibility in the future. Some apprentices' voices were liked by the audience as soon as they opened their mouths; such apprentices could become a lead very quickly.
In 1969, when Li Tianlu established his third puppetry troupe, Siwanran⁴, he sought help from his former disciple Lin Jinlian, who had already become a puppet master. Thus, Lin Jinlian returned to the troupe and became Siwanran's puppet master. After five years, Lin Jinlian cooperated with the brothers in the troupe and handed their master a symbolic red envelope for the master to authorize the Siwanran puppetry troupe license. From then on, Lin Jinlian and his fellow performers began to perform independently. Unfortunately, since the 1990s, the environment for Poo-te-hi puppet performances is not nearly as good as it had been. Forced by circumstances, Lin Jinlian had to close the troupe. Afterwards, he began to use his father's troupe name, "Jingchuntang" to concentrate on performing the Zhong Kui Dance ritual and drawing talismans. At the same time, he established a long-term cooperative relationship with Xu Wang, the second-generation head of the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe. Whenever Xiaoxiyuan went abroad for exchange or did a performance in Taiwan, Xu Wang would invite Lin Jinlian to first perform the Zhong Kui Dance for purification and blessings. Since 1994, Lin Jinlian has not done Poo-te-hi puppet shows, instead focusing himself entirely on spreading and passing on the skills of the Zhong Kui Dance.
In 1985, at the inaugural ceremony of the Seden (Xitian, "West Field") Glove Puppetry Foundation, Huang Haidai, Li Tianlu, Wang Yan, Xu Wang and other national treasure-level artists performed together on a single stage. After the ceremony, the founders of Seden Foundation, three professors from National Taiwan University, including Chen Jinci, Li Hongxi, and Yang Weizhe, invited Li Tianlu and other performers to teach at National Taiwan University. Li Tianlu was busy at the time with his troupe, so he asked his apprentice Lin Jinlian and his son to teach the class. Lin Jinlian recalls that from 1988 to 1990, he taught one class a week, mainly teaching backstage skills and puppet performance techniques. After students learned the skills, they came up with their own scripts for performances.
The actual contact between Lin Jinlian and the members of Seden Foundation originated with the glove puppets that had come to Taiwan from Quanzhou.
The puppet heads used in Taiwan Poo-te-hi puppet shows were originally carved by masters from Quanzhou, giving the heads their common name, "Tangshantou" ("China mountain heads"). In the 1920s, the Puppet Guild in Taipei cooperated with local crafters in Quanzhou to make performance stages and puppets for Taiwanese puppetry troupes. The sizes of Tangshantou, from largest to smallest, are classed as No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. Troupes in northern Taiwan tended to use the smallest No. 3 size, whereas troupes in central and southern Taiwan used No. 2. Due to the relatively small size of the northern puppets, they are easier to manipulate in the hand. Therefore, the northern style of puppetry is also known as “the play in your palm”. Lin Jinlian recalls that the puppets produced in Quanzhou in the early years had extremely delicate carvings, but now the craftsmen have aged. One can no longer find such exquisite and perfect carvings. In the 1980s, when Professor Chen Jinci from the Seden Foundation wanted to purchase puppets, he took a special trip to Quanzhou to find puppets in the "olden style". His collection has left precious sculptures for research into puppetry. Lin Jinlian comments that Professor Chen Jinci is very knowledgeable and far-sighted. This makes clear the efforts that the Seden Foundation has put into preserving traditional arts and crafts.
However, unfortunately, the puppets bought from Quanzhou have suffered various forms of damage, are missing hands, or are broken due to long-term use. When Li Laifu, director-general of the Seden Foundation, learned that Lin Jinlian was teaching at National Taiwan University, she asked him to inspect these puppets. In addition to his busy work with the troupe, Lin also went to the Seden Foundation to help clean, fix, and organize the Quanzhou puppets. This included repairing their arms, clean their hair buns and braids, and sewing coats and hats. During the process, Lin talked at length about his personal journey and his experiences performing, gradually becoming more familiar with the members of Seden Foundation.
In 1997, the Seden Foundation moved to a new location, and the opening ceremony was held strictly according to the traditional ritual. On March 6, the opening ceremony invited Lin Jinlian to perform a Zhong Kui Dance. The press conference the next day invited Jiang Cimei to perform a puppet show. In March 2016, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Seden Foundation, Professor Chen Jinci and his wife once again visited Lin Jinlian and invited him to perform the Zhong Kui Dance at the opening ceremony. Lin needed only to hear the name "Seden Foundation" to immediately agree. In addition to Lin Jinlian performing the Zhong Kui Dance, master Zhong Renbi from the Hsin Hsing Ku Puppet Show Troupe and his two sons (Zhong Renlin and Zhong Renliang) were also invited to perform. Qiu Wenjian, fourth-generation head of the Xiaoxiyuan troupe, performed a puppet show, and many experienced puppet masters including Chen Xihuang and Jiang Cimei also attended the event to celebrate and sing and perform. Lin Jinlian recalls what happened that day, describing it simply as "far beyond lively". Later, he got busy with working in the Jingchuntang troupe, and his exchanges with Seden Foundation decreased. When he learned that Seden Foundation was donating important cultural objects from its collection to National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University for cultural preservation and promotion, he said simply that this was a good thing, and that passing things down is very important.
On the topic of passing down traditional heritage, Lin Jinlian states that the tradition of glove-puppet performance must be carried on to later generations. He puts it directly: “Puppetry cannot be allowed to disappear. It must be passed down, generation after generation.” He follows on by saying that people nowadays do not understand the old rituals of glove puppetry. For puppet performances given on the open stage in public in the early years, there were a lot of inside knacks to know. For example, one had to be clear first on the surname of the patron (the one inviting the troupe, or the one holding the temple ceremony) before performing. If their surname was Huang, for example, the performance program must exclude any villain characters surnamed Huang. Compared to the gradual weakening of interpersonal relationships in today's society, the old ways of performing highlight the warmth and care people had for each other in the olden days. Additionally, the ritual steps of purifying the stage and the Banxianxi ("Embodiment of the Immortals") cannot be skipped; and the puppet master's dialogue is the very soul of a puppet show. It is a pity that nowadays troupes mostly use broadcast recordings. It is rare to see puppet masters in the backstage performing the five voices vividly. The fact that young people do not understand the Hoklo ("Taiwanese") language is also a major reason for the gradual disappearance of traditional puppet shows.
Lin said that he is advancing in years, and has already started training the ones who will take over from him. He wants to pass down his unique performing technique —the Zhong Kui Dance, performed with marionettes — to his grandson Lin Chengde and an emerging performing artist, Guo Jianfu. Lin also hopes that government and civil organizations will, like the Seden Foundation did in the past, invest their efforts and financial resources to pass down the tradition of puppetry to future generations.
¹In the Jingchunyuan puppetry troupe at Hsinchu, Lin Xiang was the head of the troupe and both a marionette and glove puppet performer. Because he had to perform the Zhong Kui Dance at the beginning of each performance, to expel evil spirits, Lin Xiang was also able to draw talismans and performing rituals; he thus was also qualified as a “red-top Daoist priest” (that is, a priest in the Zhengyi lineage, who tends to perform rituals for auspicious occasions, rather than for misfortunes).
²In the puppet performance, the lead puppet master is the leading performer of the troupe, who is in charge of most of the puppet performance and dialogue. The “second” (assistant) to a lead puppet master usually helps the lead master by performing puppet characters with less importance — complements to the main performance — and is not responsible for speaking.
³The members of the Jinyushe glove-puppetry troupe at Xiluo are all women. The Jinyushe troupe primarily performs in the Hsinchu area. The head of the troupe is Zhan Ben. Her daughter Zhan Baoyu is a lead puppet master. Zhan Baoyu studied at the foot of Huang Haidai from the Wuzhouyuan troupe; Zhan Baoyu was Huang's first female apprentice.
⁴Li Tianlu's troupes all use the root name “Wanran” (“likeness”, “resemblance”): Lin Jinlian's Siwanran (“A Perfect Likeness”), Chen Xihuang's Xinwanran (“A New Likeness”), the French student group Xiaowanran (“A Little Likeness”), Pingdeng Elementary School's Qiaowanran (“A Clever Likeness”), Juguang Elementary School's Weiwanran (“A Tiny Likeness”), and Chinese Culture University's Zhongwanran (“A Chinese Likeness”). Together, these form the Wanran puppetry family.
Lin Fuquan, a musician in the Seden Foundation, is nearly 80 years old but still unremittingly goes out to perform and promote traditional glove-puppet (poo-te-hi) show culture. When he was little, he was a huge fan of glove puppetry. Even as an adult, his passion for puppetry has never subsided. By chance, he learned that the Seden Foundation was recruiting students, so he joined the Foundation; there, he worked with Li Tianlu, Zhong Renbi, Li Shunfa, and others. He is confident that, so long as the next generation likes puppetry, traditional culture will last.
In Shilin, there is a repair center; it was opened by Lin Fuquan's son, and all of Lin Fuquan's props are here. Walking into the center, all that meets the eye is an ordinary repair shop. It's not until you reach the second floor that you realize that this is Lin's little world of glove puppetry (poo-te-hi). The first thing that catches your attention is the sheet music and cultural objects left behind by Lin's grandfather. Next, the eye notes Lin's collection of glove-puppets, and documents related to the Seden Traditional Theater; and finally, the eye sees the One-Person Puppet Stage that he designed and is so proud of.
Recalling his memories of glove-puppet shows and Beiguan style opera, Lin Fuquan recalls that it probably all traces back to his grandfather's performances. His grandfather was the head of the Beiguan Sanyixuan troupe. “The clang-clang-bang-bang sounds I heard when I was a kid left a certain impression on me.” Those Beiguan sounds he had so often heard stopped abruptly with the death of his grandfather, but at the age of seven, they still left Lin Fuquan with strong memories.
When he was in elementary school, just like all children of the same age, Lin Fuquan was fascinated with the traditional puppet shows that were popular at the time. His favorite was Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe. “When I was little, I followed the troupe everywhere, from Yanping North Road to the Wanhua area.” Looking back now, he still remembers that his favorite performance is Dragon Head and Golden Swordsman by Xu Wang. This work continues to be performed today; it has now been handed on to the next generation of Xiaoxiyuan performers. That child who used to chase puppet shows all around town would perhaps never have thought that he himself would become a backstage musician.
In fact, before he became a musician, Lin Fuquan's main job was as a carpenter in a shipbuilding company. One day, he happened to read in the newspaper that the Seden Foundation was recruiting students. Its professors were well-known performing artists such as Li Tianlu, Zhong Renbi, and Li Shunfa. Lin Fuquan was hugely moved; but this also happened to be a time when his children were still little, and his family's financial situation was difficult. His wife once objected, “What's the use of learning this?” Lin Fuquan thought of a reason: “If I retire in the future, this would be a fun hobby.” Perhaps his wife saw his enthusiasm; she did not object again. At about forty years of age, Lin Fuquan officially started his life as an apprentice.
Wu Zhengde, who is now the artistic director of Seden Traditional Theater, was in the Foundation's first class of students; Lin Fuquan was in the second class. At the time, both went to National Taiwan University to practice two days a week. Although Wu and Lin would come into contact with both front-stage and backstage work, the two were mainly responsible for the backstage matters, including gongs, drums, strings, and suona (a type of woodwind). “What I learned was the martial (wu) stage style, which is all about clashing gongs and beating drums; playing strings and plucking qin zithers is the literary (wen) style.” The teacher who taught Wu and Lin was Li Shunfa, backstage artist of the I Wan Jan Puppet Theater.
The older generation has a phrase: “Three years and four months”. This means that becoming a master is no easy task. If you want to learn a skill, you must study for at least three years and four months. Lin Fuquan said that as far as the backstage of the puppet show is concerned, if one has a sense of rhythm and musical talent, the learning will be easier. If you can't grasp the rhythm, then you'll need additional practice in the literary style. For people like Lin Fuquan, with both a strong interest in puppetry and the basic foundation, it is naturally much faster to get started. Lin Fuquan says with a smile and a bit pride in his voice, "Wu Zhengde and I spent one to two years in learning before we went out and performed.”
Thinking back to the days when Lin Fuquan was just getting his start in performing, it's like he was learning as he went. As he lists the teachers who gave him guidance at the time, it seems that most of them have since passed away. “Those old masters have gone away, one after the other.” In the midst of a happy conversation, this topic brings a flash of disappointment to Lin Fuquan's eyes.
Lin's memories of time with those masters are still vivid. In addition to Li Shunfa, the backstage master with whom Lin had the most contact, master Zhong Renbi also left a deep impression on Lin. “I didn't understand Japanese when I went to Japan to perform, but master Zhong could speak Japanese, so a lot of things were handled by him.” Lin remains grateful, not just for the help he had performing in Japan, but also for all the guidance master Zhong gave him, as well as master Zhong's dedication to glove puppetry and the Seden Foundation.
Recalling the days when he worked with other members of the Seden Foundation, Lin Fuquan says with a laugh that there are no anecdotes about it. “When we were done for the day, we'd just go to our own homes. We didn't hang out together after work. We just went our separate ways.” To just get together, set up the stage, prepare for the performance, and then after the performance just each go to their separate homes sounds like it must have been a very strait-laced affair, all business and no pleasure. However, viewed from another perspective, everyone wanted to put their whole hearts into their glove puppetry. Perhaps only a puppet show could bring such a group of people together.
In the old days, Lin had 17 or 18 puppet performances a month, in Taiwan alone. Lin and other members of the Foundation also went abroad for performances often; this is an important memory for everyone. “About ten years ago or so, we were often going abroad to perform - Japan, Europe, the US, we went to all of them.” With invitations and funds, even if they knew that they would face barriers in food, lifestyle, language, or time constraints, everyone would always fly abroad without hesitation. They hoped to show the world the beauty of glove-puppetry.
“The most troublesome was the language barrier, so I rarely spoke during the performances.” Lin recalls that when he performed puppet shows in the United States for local children, since they wouldn't be able to understand the dialogue, he used acting through gestures. Surprisingly, with only movement to rely on, the children in the audience still enjoyed every minute of it. It was only then that Lin Fuquan realized, “It turns out that they can understand even if I don't speak, and only do gestures.” It turned out that the puppetry Lin has been fascinated with for so many years could overcome language barriers and amaze people on the other side of the world.
If the beauty of puppet show can transcend language barriers, then is there a chance to bridge the gap between generations and help younger generations love puppetry to the point where they desire to preserve the culture?
About 20 years ago, in addition to his already-busy glove puppetry performance schedule, Lin Fuquan also performed on school campuses with the Seden Foundation, to help students become familiar with puppetry. “I performed mostly with Wu Zhengde on campus, doing that clang-clang-bang-bang with the kids.” They hoped that, through their explanations and teaching, children born into an age of glove-puppet shows on Taiwanese TV would have the opportunity to see what a traditional puppet show looks like.
“Passing down traditions to the next generation needs to start in the childhood years.” Lin is confident that if children today can feel the fun and beauty of puppetry as he did back then, then this cultural heritage will have a better chance of being preserved. Therefore, to this day, Lin Fuquan, Wu Zhengde, and Qiu Fengrong from the Xi'ouzi Puppetry Troupe still tour campuses every year. Lin Fuquan, who is nearly 80 years old, said about his recent schedule, “We have about a dozen shows every year; we're still doing them. A few days from now, we're going to Dihua Street.” Li is just as happy to do it now as he ever has been.
“Sometimes I get these puppets out to play with my grandchildren.” It is not that Lin Fuquan has not thought about teaching his grandchildren puppetry; it's just that his children and grandchildren are more attracted to the highly-produced Pili puppet shows on TV than to traditional puppetry. But that does not affect Lin Fuquan's dedication to puppetry. He still takes out the puppets he has collected to play with his grandchildren whenever he has the opportunity. Just like his dedication to glove puppetry, as long as he has the opportunity to perform, he goes with the Seden Foundation to give performances.
Lin takes out a one-person puppet stage that he designed himself. Only on asking does it come to light that Lin learned the wood-sculpting skills on display in the stage during his days as a carpenter in a shipbuilding company. The company included master sculptors; Lin, who was responsible for woodwork decorations, learned by observing those masters. Lin in turn applied these techniques to the making of puppet props. Not only the stage, prop knives, spears, tables, and chairs were all creations he handled ably. The idea of the one-person stage comes from a childhood experience, when he saw a blind person playing a gong with their feet, the drums with both hands, and all while singing. “I thought that I could do that, too. I wanted to have a stage I had made myself, so I designed it.”
Back to the little world of puppets in the second floor, Lin Fuquan sits within the stage he designed and begins to display the backstage skills he's developed over more than 30 years. Looking at the scenery in front of him, he thinks again of what he said to his wife back then when he asked her if he could learn puppetry. “If I retire in the future, this would be a fun hobby.” But on the path of promoting poo-te-hi glove puppetry, Lin Fuquan has not, and will not, retired.