The puppet itself is an artistic treasure because of its elaborate structure, vivid woodcarving, and powder-color techniques. Maintaining the style of woodcarving and painting popular in the Tang and Song dynasties, the current puppets also place emphasis on expressing individuality through exaggerated designs. For special effects, puppets have movable earlobes, hinged jaws, enlarged heads, and eyes that can be opened and closed. Quanzhou puppets can imitate all the movements of human beings, the secret lying in the strings. With ten fingers, a puppeteer manipulates the gestures and facial expressions of a puppet through strings. Every tiny error of the fingers leads to severe failures. Nowadays only professionals in the puppet show troupes know how to handle these puppets.

The artistic quality of the performance is often judged on the basis of the simulated walk, which is used to convey character and personality. For example, a female character "floats" with a gentle sway, while an official moves slowly and with dignity.

Making heads and costumes are two key steps in producing a puppet. Preparing the base, engraving, powdering, color spraying, and painting are the five steps necessary to create a puppet head. Craftsmen then add beards and hair as required by different characters in the play. A puppet's costume is decorated with colorful embroideries. It usually takes five days to finish a puppet, the price of which ranges from 200 to 1,000 Yuan according to the materials used.

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