Photo courtesy of the Quangzhou Puppet Troupe
Quanzhou, the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, is famous for its puppet tradition of more than one thousand years. Quanzhou’s marionette repertoire consists of more than 700 traditional plays and some 300 “puppet tunes” played with ancient instruments such as the “foot-pressed drum.” Founded in 1952 as the main inheritor of the city’s marionette tradition, the Quanzhou Puppet Troupe has revived and created a great number of works and toured more than fifty countries and regions in the world.
Chen Luanzhi 陈銮治 , string puppeteerChen Zhijie 陈志杰 , musician, chief drum, traditional Chinese percussion instrument Dai Xun 戴勋 , string puppeteer Fu Duanfeng 傅端凤 , string puppeteerHuang Dasheng 黄达生 , musician, traditional Chinese percussion instrument, guitar, er’hu (string instrument)Huang Wenjun 黄文君 , string puppeteerHuang Zhenlong 黄贞龙 , musician, aizai (string instrument), er’hu Li Xiaohui 李小惠 , string puppeteer Lin Jianyu 林建裕 , string puppeteer, percussion instrumentShen Suge 沈苏革 , string puppeteerWang Jinxian 王景贤 , director, presenterWu Jilian 吴季莲 , musician, pipa (Chinese lute) Wu Weihong 吴伟宏 , string puppeteerXu Shaowei 许少伟 , string puppeteerXu Ziming 许子铭 , musician, fluteZeng Kaiyu 曾凯瑜 , musician, sheng (pipe wind instrument) Zhang Gong 张弓 , string puppeteer
From the Festival
The Quanzhou Puppet Troupe performs in the Moonrise Pavilion.
Photo by Joe Furgal, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Photo by Rachel Winslow, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Zhang Gong.
Photo by Heather Caverhill, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Fu Duanfeng.
Photo by Rachel Winslow, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Fu Duanfeng.
Photo by Brain Barger, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Close-up of puppet.
Photo by Maggie Pelta-Pauls, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Photo by Rachel Winslow, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Li Xiaohui instructs a young Festival visitor.
Photo by Kate Mankowski, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
The Quanzhou Puppet Troupe demonstrates for audiences at the Family Style tent.
Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
The Quanzhou Puppet Troupe performs in front of huge crowds at the Moonrise Pavilion.
Photo by Walter Larrimore, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
