zhàng tóu mù ǒu (Rod Puppet)

The celebrated rod puppets of the Guangdong Province on the south coast of China have a long history. They became popular during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Generally referred to as ‘ghost opera’ (qui-a-xi), this form of rod puppetry shares many characteristics with Cantonese Opera. There are the four standard categories of performer: male (sang/sheng), female (daan/dan), clown (cau/chou) and painted faces (zing/jing), often reserved for martial or fighting characters. They wear elaborately embroidered costumes and perform classical Chinese legends and histories, with dramatic and stylized acrobatics, movements, voices and gestures. The likeness of the rod puppets to their human counterparts is enhanced further by the clever mechanisms that move the eyes and mouth. Like all forms of Asian theatre and puppetry, music is also an essential part of the performance: the accompanying orchestra generally consists of gongs, drums, violins and reed instruments. Almost every performance of puppet theatre in Guangdong is part of religious festivities. The stage is built opposite a temple or shrine. A performance usually starts with ritual blessings to bring peace and prosperity to the local community.

Puppet represents an evil character.

Rod puppet (zhàng tóu mù ǒu), representing the character Hua Lian (painted face). Head, torso and hands are carved from wood. Hands painted pink beige, face and torso painted white. Character has a wide nose, large ears and moveable eyes and mouth. Mouth is painted red with white teeth, and there is comma shaped marking underneath it. Eyes are black rimmed with two circles surrounding them. There are three lines painted across the bridge of the nose and dots above the nostrils. Curvilinear motifs on the cheeks and forehead. Character has a small moustache. All designs across the face are done in black. Area around the ears and the back of the head are painted black, imitating hair. He is wearing a dark blue cap with metal buttons along the bottom edge. The character is wearing a sleeveless red robe, overtop of an off-white undergarment. Red robe has a front centre opening, secured with ties and metal buttons. Wavy pink ribbon, with white square motif through middle, trims the cuffs. Front opening and bottom edge of robe bordered with wide off-white band. Curvilinear motifs, in same off-white material, protrude from border band throughout. Interior of undergarment has characters printed across it in red. Puppet is operated by three bamboo rods- one large rod attached to his torso, and two more attached to each hand. Eyes and mouth are operated by a wooden rod, with a metal attachment, inside of the central bamboo rod. Back of puppet’s head has been cut out and re-attached.