International Puppet Festivals have been held in Quanzhou at least a dozen times, the latest one in 2019, because this ancient center of commerce, philosophy and religion is also the home of Chinese marionettes.

Quanzhou of course has many unique crafts, including exquisite paper lanterns, bamboo weaving, porcelain, wood sculpture, tree root carving, paper weaving, lacquer ware, clay sculptures, miniature flour carvings, and 1,700 years of Hui’an stone carving, but the icing on the cultural cake is puppets (Fig. 5.1).

Fig. 5.1
A photo of Quanzhou marionettes presents the puppets of 4 persons that are tied to strings.

Quanzhou Marionettes

Full size image

Quanzhou Marionette Troupe (泉州木偶剧团) has thrilled audiences in over 50 countries and regions, including performances in London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Over 50 puppeteers manipulate the puppets while singing to the background of a full Chinese orchestra. Unfortunately, it is hard to catch their acts at home, but you can arrange a once-in-a-lifetime command performance for only a few thousand yuan.

Chinese puppetry dates back at least to the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago, though legend has it the art began 3,000 years with King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty. While returning from hunting in the Kunlun Mountains, he saw a carpenter, Yanshi, giving a song and dance performance with his wooden dolls.

The art evolved over the past 2,000–3,000 years, and reached its epitome in Quanzhou, which has the only Chinese puppets that boast their own musical repertoire performed on unique musical instruments, with over 300 songs and tunes written for more than 700 traditional puppet shows.

These miraculous marionettes have more strings attached than a henpecked husband. When deftly wielded by a master puppeteer, 16–36 strings bring the wooden folk to life as they strut and fret with abandon across intricate Chinese stages.

Unlike Western puppeteers, who work mainly with the control, Chinese puppeteers also manipulate groups of strings with their fingers. The longer the strings (up to two meters), the more difficult to operate, but the more expressive the puppets can become as they portray men and women of all ages and professions—or even spirits or wild animals.

Puppets make love and war, bicker and barter, dance, jog and somersault. Their deft hands even retrieve objects from the stage floor! Maybe their lips move too, because Jimmy sure fell for this fellow (who robs cradles too). But everything hinges on puppeteers like Mr. Xia Rongfeng (夏荣峰), retired vice director for performers of Quanzhou Puppet Troupe (who kindly gave us a tour and a delightful demonstration).

Puppeteers, who often begin training as children, may take five years to learn the basics, and over 20 years to completely master more than 30 strings! The sheer complexity of marionettes is amazing. They have a torso, limbs, strings and a hollow wooden head (usually camphor or willow) with internal mechanisms to move the lips and eyes. They have civilians hold pens and cups or swing fans, and military hands to brandish swords, spears, and other weapons. There are even three types of feet: bare, booted, and womanly.

No wonder modern youth are hesitant to devote their lives to mastering puppetry, and the camphor creatures are getting more complex by the year.

Modern Puppetry Master Puppeteers of the late Qing Dynasty, like Lin Chengchi, could make their puppets draw swords and open umbrellas, but modern puppeteers are as good, or better. And for all their skill, they are continuing to perfect their craft to create utterly breathtaking puppets and performances. Modern stages are deeper, allowing the puppets greater freedom of movement, and allowing the use of different types of puppets simultaneously. For example, the Iron-fan Princess in Flaming Mountain is manipulated with strings, poles and fingers.

In Taming the Monkey, the simian puppet monkeys about doing everything from riding a bicycle to playing a guitar. In Drunken Zhong Kui, Zhong Kui fails the imperial examinations simply because he is so ugly. After he commits suicide, the King of Hell appoints him “Master demon chaser”, but he is so overwhelmed by the number of wicked demons and ghosts that he turns to drink. But in the end, he goes on the wagon, and then devotes himself to an eternal battle against wickedness. It is a hell of a story.

Carrying the Tradition Abroad The Quanzhou Puppet Troupe held a workshop for 11 British puppeteers and puppet lovers in London’s Little Angel. Puppeteer Christopher Leith had worked with marionettes for over 35 years but still found the training tough. The Chinese said they’d done well in such a short time, and should be up to snuff in a couple of years (a long time for us Westerners, but nothing for Chinese who spend decades at it!).

Crafting Puppet Heads Crafting quality camphor wood puppet heads is a vanishing art. People just aren’t patient enough nowadays to spend 10–15 years mastering this exacting craft. Of the few dozen puppet head makers left in Quanzhou, only 10–20 make quality puppets. The rest chum out mass-produced heads (or, worse yet, press out plastic heads, which may look the same but don’t have the soul of the genuine wooden folk).

Puppet heads begin life as a block of camphor wood which is cut to a rough form, sanded, and then carved with finer detail. After a coat of paint, and then gloss, further details and hair are added. Cheap heads are churned out in only three to four days, but it takes Master carver Wang Yique a couple of weeks to give birth to his masterpieces…

The article “Heads Up”, in Dragon Air’s in-flight magazine, The Silk Road, (September 1988) was about Quanzhou puppet master, Wang Yique, who at the time had made puppets for 60 years. Master Wang said: “I’ve done this since I was 13 years old. I can’t give it up now. Besides, I want to leave something behind after I’m gone.” He also noted that none of his children or grandchildren had chosen to make puppet heads.

Wang Yique spends up to half a month carving a head with the exaggerated features that can be seen from a distance. Some puppets have four heads, four mouths and eight eyes—all controllable by one finger!

Glove puppets appear simpler to use than marionettes, but these require years of training. With the forefinger in the head and thumb and middle finger operating the arms, the puppeteer can perform astonishing feats. The puppets pour tea into tiny pots, wield fans, change clothes, brandish swords, or perform somersaults while juggling barrels and dishes on poles balanced on their head. Quite literally breathtaking.

Quanzhou Puppet Troupe Museum I could spend an entire day going through the endless displays of ancient and modern puppets ranging from warriors, emperors and the Monkey King and his entourage, to heroes of the Liberation, foreign villains, and musician puppets that play the violin.

FormalPara Puppet Museum Sign

Quanzhou puppet art has a long history and has been inherited for generations. It is well known at home and abroad as a bright pearl in the treasure house of Quanzhou. On display are master puppet pieces, rich contented articles and photographs, which vividly present the exquisitely carved puppet heads and the unique craftsmanship of the puppet-making, and also shows you the puppeteer’s high skill of the string and glove puppet manipulation, as well as the Quanzhou puppet arts’ influence in Taiwan and abroad. All of these will present to you a splendid picture of this art. Please step into the gallery of Quanzhou puppet art. Enjoy its magic.

Chen-Family Puppet Museum One of my favorite stops, this topnotch museum used to be right behind the Ashab Mosque but has relocated. The display included marionettes, Jinjiang hand puppets, and many other forms of puppetry. Nicely laid-out displays showed how the wooden creatures are crafted lovingly from blocks of camphor wood until, in the hands of a master, they spring to life with more gusto than Pinocchio on the trail of the Blue Fairy.

But now, regretfully, both of these delightful puppet museums have shut down, but I still reserve a space for them in this book so their memory lives on.