It also led me to become fascinated with the Hand Puppetry folk art history, figures, and performance. With the warm hospitality of Master Bill Chen, the owner of the theater, we received and experienced much more than we expected by the time we left the theater. We knew that the stage performance was only offered for the dinner time. The long term customers came to spend the afternoon together in the theater by playing games and drinking teas. Taiwanese cuisine is also offered before all the interacting activities. Located on Yi Tong Street, Taipei, “See- Join Hand Puppet Theater” is an awesome place to have the stage experience, learn, interact and have fun with the traditional Taiwanese folk art- Hand Puppetry.
#Taiwan puppetry tv
Unfortunately, there’s no English alongside any of the Chinese texts, and the photocopied English-language introduction I was given on arrival wasn’t especially useful.It was a unique experience to interact with the figures of 1970’s most popular TV entertainment -Hand Puppetry. Rather than display memorabilia, the museum uses puppets to profile the five character categories in Taiwanese opera (Beijing opera, by contrast, has four). Founded by a Pingtung native in 1929, the troupe based itself in the town between the early 1960s and its rise to national fame in the 1980s. It has two smallish galleries, so not much time is needed to see everything inside.Ĭhaojhou’s connection to the world of Taiwanese opera is through Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera Company (明華園), the country’s leading performance group.
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A full renovation was ordered, and it was decided to turn the building into a museum celebrating opera and puppetry. While tidying up after the disaster, the beams holding up the tiled roof were found to be riddled with woodworm. This bearded man with an upside-down head is one of the most unusual puppets on display in Pingtung County. The two traditions use different combinations of musical instruments. Nanguan is older, preserving elements from the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907AD). Beiguan mostly uses a pentatonic scale, and scores are considered mere outlines which individual musicians elaborate according to their skills and preferences. There’s also an explanation of the differences between the beiguan and nanguan forms of opera.
![taiwan puppetry taiwan puppetry](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gPoHkGhJhhk/maxresdefault.jpg)
The northeastern county also has rich traditions of string puppetry and glove puppetry.Īmong the items displayed on the first floor is a book of traditional sheet music, written in a format utterly different to the scores used by today’s trained musicians. Retired opera superstar Yang Li-hua (楊麗花) was born in Yuanshan (員山), the town next to Yilan City. Yilan is recognized as the birthplace of Taiwanese opera, which has been described as the country’s only indigenous performing art.
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Rather than reproduce the sound of staff clashing against sword, on-stage combat takes the form of acrobatics accompanied by drums and gongs.Īmong the items exhibited in the Taiwan Theater Museum is this Taiwanese opera score written in traditional notation.
![taiwan puppetry taiwan puppetry](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/17/17/7c/17177c5903cc67352c402448d2877972.jpg)
![taiwan puppetry taiwan puppetry](https://i0.wp.com/taiwan-scene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Taiwan-tradition-shadow-puppet-puppetry-theater-3.jpg)
Those watching need to know that striding purposefully in circles means the character is undertaking a long journey that wringing one’s hands is an expression of anxiety and that bravery is shown by clasping one’s hands behind one’s back. Taiwanese opera, like Beijing opera, is a performing art in which much of the movement is symbolic, rather than realistic. Yunlin-based Pili International Multimedia continues to mass produce episodes that are broadcast on TV, streamed over the Internet and sold in the form of DVDs. Puppet troupes used to earn money by performing at weddings, funerals and temple celebrations, but in the early 1970s, budaixi made the transition to TV. For those who don’t speak Hoklo (better known as Taiwanese), the local forms of glove puppetry and traditional opera are as inaccessible as they are colorful.īudaixi (布袋戲, “cloth bag drama”) emerged in Fujian Province around 300 years ago, and was carried to Taiwan by Han migrants.