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Puppets Tell Tales of Old: Unique Man-and-pupppet Show in Lingao
Villagers often invite amateurish troupes to play their favorite man-and-puppet
shows during the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year. They do it not only to
celebrate the holiday but also to pray for blessing.
Amateurish man-and-puppet performance is seasonal. The busiest days are from
the first to fourth month by the Chinese lunar calendar, usually the days for
villager to worship their ancestors. During the fifth and sixth lunar month,
amateurs go back home to do farming work. In the seventh and eighth lunar month,
villagers invite puppet show troupes again to celebrate on their children
succeeding in examinations or enter higher schools.
A Female Man-and-puppet Show
Performer
From the second day of the first lunar month of 2003, the workshop founded by
a female head Wang Leiguo was busy performing the man-and-puppet show from one
village to another.
Wang, 44, in a typical villager dress, looks simpleminded and taciturn. She
liked the man-and-puppet show in her childhood and began to learn it at the age
of 19 when she graduated from high school. In the early 1980s, she founded her
own puppet show workshop. But her husband did not want her to do it, because he
thought a woman should stay at home doing housework and taking care of husband
and children. So her husband forced her to make a choice: either the family or
the workshop. Wang chose the latter and hey divorced. After the divorce, Wang
did not remarry or go back to her parents. She rented a small house in the
county town. When there was a performance, she brought her kids with herself;
when she was off duty, she stayed at home doing weaving and mending chores. She
finally managed to bring her two kids up. The elder son is 12 years old and are
receiving schooling.
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