Arriving in the countryside of Kashgar, Xinjiang, 47-year-old Shanghai Sun Wukong
On September 22, the Shanghai Puppet Theater brought the rod puppet show "Sun Wukong Defeats the White Bone Demon" to Buyiluke Tajik Township, Zepu County, Kashgar City, and performed the seventh China Farmers' Harvest Festival with Shanghai-style puppetry, adding color to the festival celebration with intangible cultural heritage.
"The Monkey King Defeats the White Bone Demon", which premiered in 1977, was the first puppet show of the Shanghai Puppet Theater to go abroad. The wonderful storyline, outstanding rod puppet performances, and wonderful puppet stunts made it a veritable signature show of the troupe.
It has been 47 years since the premiere of "Sun Wukong Three Times Defeats the White Bone Demon". At the beginning of the rehearsal of the play, Liu Xiaolingtong, the father of Liu Xiaolingtong, who is known as the "Southern Monkey King", taught many secrets of playing Sun Wukong. There are more than 20 characters in the whole play, and none of them are repeated. In addition to Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie is pot-bellied and naive, Sha Seng is full-bearded and loyal, Tang Seng is compassionate and devoted to Buddhism, the White Bone Demon is cunning and treacherous, and the three different characters have very different personalities. All of them have become lifelike in the hands of the actors.
The production of the characters follows the traditional rod puppets, but breaks the limitation of the rod puppets that can only perform with the half of the body, and adds the performance function of legs to puppets such as Sun Wukong. "Sun Wukong Defeats the White Bone Demon" also uses a lot of stunts. Sun Wukong's scalable golden hoop is the highlight of all the stunts. The thumb-sized golden hoop is gently thrown up by the actor, and a 160-centimeter golden hoop appears out of thin air in an instant.
The autumn wind blows, and the golden autumn arrives. The Shanghai Puppet Theater "Occasionally" encounters the Kashgar Cultural Run Xinjiang event and brings the 47-year-old Shanghai Monkey King to the countryside of Kashgar, where they present a joint performance with the Zepu Art Troupe. The unique Shanghai style collides with the rich ethnic customs, attracting many local residents to watch. The grand performance was also live-broadcasted online, bringing the joy of the harvest to tens of thousands of people in 15 towns and villages in Zepu County. The Minhang District Media Integration Center also broadcast this art feast in real time, realizing the cross-regional celebration of Zepu and Shanghai.
The "Red Silk Dance" performed by the rod puppet slowly appeared, and the 7-meter-long red silk fluttered and danced in the puppet actor's performance. Accompanied by the Xinjiang folk instrument "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", the melodious melody added a special ethnic charm to the smart puppet performance. The troupe also specially arranged the horizontal puppet show "The Little Girl Who Loves to Dance" and combined it with the dance program brought by the Zepu County Art Troupe to present a fusion performance of puppetry and Xinjiang dance. Following the cheerful drum beats, the audience stood up and danced with the actors.
Invited by the Zepu County Culture and Tourism Bureau, the Shanghai Puppet Theater returned to Zepu immediately after its performance in Suzhou to prepare for the Harvest Festival. This art performance is not only an affectionate eulogy to the harvest scene, but also a bridge and bond for artistic exchanges between the two places.
