Shadow puppet artist Wang Biao

Wang Biao, who has been honored as National Representative Inheritor and International Master of Arts and Crafts, has recently entered the list of candidates for 2021 Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Person.

Through the winter of shadow puppet

Founded shadow puppet art troupe

Shadow puppet is a dramatic form in which colorful shadow puppet images made of leather or paper are performed along with music and singing. There are many schools of shadow puppet in China. Sichuan shadow puppet has branches in Chengdu and northern Sichuan. Wang's shadow puppet, inherited from Wang Biao's family, is a typical representative of shadow puppet in northern Sichuan.

Wang Wenkun, Wang Biao's grandfather, is a skilled shadow puppeteer with deep attests in shadow puppetry production, shadow puppetry manipulation, script lines and other aspects. In 1988, he was invited to perform Chinese shadow puppetry in the Golden Hall of Vienna, capital of Austria, and became the first Chinese peasant artist to camethe golden Hall.

From learning shadow play to inheriting the troupe, it seems that it was taken for granted. However, when Wang grew up, the first thing he encountered was the winter of shadow puppet. "With the popularity of TV and DVD programs, rich content has attracted a large number of viewers. Shadow puppets, which had just recovered, soon declined under the impact of the market", he said.

In 1989, Wang left his hometown and went out to work. Until 2000, Wang saw a pair of exquisite Shaanxi old shadow puppets in Beijing Panjiayuan secondhand goods market, hedecided to inherit this craft. He returned to Sichuan and picked up the skills he had learned from his grandfather. In 2004, he came back to Langzhong, his hometown, and established the North Sichuan Shadow Puppet Art Troupe. He was the head of the troupe, and his brother Wang Fang was the deputy's head.

Changed the thinking

Developed in innovation

To some extent, the crisis of traditional shadow puppet is closely related to the transformation of the aesthetic direction of the whole society. After returning to Langzhong, Wang Biao was constantly thinking about how to give new expression to this traditional art. Among his many explorations, the bolder attempt was a new shadow play he calledDisco. Unlike the shadow play in which the characters were dressed in ancient costumes, Wang has turned the costumes into colorful fashion and the soundtrack has become a dynamic disco instead of a dramatic drum and gong.

In the inheritance of shadow puppet, there has been a tradition ofteaching shadow puppets only to boys in the family for hundreds of years. Wang Biao intends to break this tradition. He recruited six students, all graduates. "I signed contracts with each of them, promising that they could stay in the troupe after they finished their studies“,he said, "shadow puppet has been handed down for hundreds of years, it should not disappear".