What is shadow play?

Shadow play is a kind of puppet show, also called "shadow play" and "lantern play". It is an ancient art form in China and the earliest art form dubbed as shadow play in the world. The origin of shadow play can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, and it has a history of more than 2,000 years. Shadow play is deeply loved by the audience for its exquisite sculptures, popular music lyrics and simple and flexible performance forms. "Shadow Play" is the general name of shadow play and shadow play characters (including scene props and scenery) products. Chinese shadow play art is a unique artistic variety that combines China folk arts and crafts with China traditional opera skillfully, and it is an indispensable and exquisite pearl in the Chinese national art palace. Shadow play is a form of drama that allows the audience to watch the light and shadow of the plane puppet performance through the white curtain to achieve artistic effects; The plane figures and props in shadow play are usually leather products drawn by folk artists by hand and knife carving, so it is called shadow play. However, due to the complexity of traditional shadow play production technology and the lack of innovation in performance forms and tracks, shadow play gradually declined after the founding of New China. Especially during the Cultural Revolution, shadow play was turned into "black goods", which was greatly impacted and further aggravated its decline. 1. Unique aesthetic feeling of shadow play: Shadow play is also called "shadow play", "lantern play" and "local shadow play", and some places are called "monkey play" and "paper shadow play", which originated in Shaanxi in the Western Han Dynasty, matured in Qin, Jin and Yu in the Tang and Song Dynasties and flourished in Hebei in the Qing Dynasty. As the name implies, shadow play is made of leather. Cowhide and donkey skin are better for firmness and transparency. When coloring, five kinds of fixed transparent pigments such as red, yellow, cyan, green and black are mainly used. It is precisely because of these special materials that the shadows of figures and props in shadow play projected on the screen under the backlight are magnificent and crystal clear, with unique aesthetic feeling. Shadow play has a history of more than two thousand years. It is the earliest moving picture art dubbed by people in the world and has the reputation of "the originator of movies"! In the underdeveloped past, film and television was once one of the very popular folk entertainment activities. I. Characteristics of Shadow Play Shadow Play is the product of China's agricultural civilization and has a strong local flavor. In feudal society, it was difficult for farmers to make reasonable explanations for many natural phenomena, so they simply attributed them to ghosts and gods, which led to the worship of ghosts and gods. Shadow play is a manifestation of the worship of ghosts and gods, and it is an art with the first purpose of worshipping all supernatural gods. Shadow play is the basic prop of shadow play. Personally, shadow play is also a unique plastic art, which has four main characteristics: First, the deformation is reasonable. In order to break through the limitation that shadow play can only move in two-dimensional space, shadow play sculptors use deformation art reasonably to adapt to the visual experience of the audience when watching movies, so that the audience can have a distinct three-dimensional sense and at the same time highlight the personality characteristics of the characters. The second is bold exaggeration. This kind of exaggeration can reflect the essential characteristics of people and scenery, and produce strong aesthetic feeling and performance effect. The third is a clever symbol. The symbolic characteristics of shadow play mainly reflect the personality characteristics of characters through patterns and tones. For example, the shape of Qin Shihuang in Sichuan shadow play. The fourth is naive decoration. Shadow play has absorbed the simplicity, innocence and strong decoration of folk brocade, embroidery and paper-cutting, so it has strict layout, smooth lines, bright colors and strong decoration. Generally, the performance of shadow play needs at least 3 people, and 2 people cooperate with 1 individual music performance. Performers manipulate the characters' chariots and horses with both hands, perform and sing by themselves. The lights cast the characters' chariots and horses on the white curtain, and the audience watched the movie in front of the curtain. This form of shadow play has two limitations: one is the limitation of plane. The flat screen makes the performance only have up, down, left and right plane space, and lacks deep three-dimensional space. The second is the limitation of shadow play. Shadow play is mostly half a face on the right side, lacking expression changes, that is, as the saying goes, "three bamboos, one skin, half a face, half a hat and one eye." This limitation of shadow play also brings a special artistic effect: the plane shadow play and shadow play make the shadow play leave the plane, and the image becomes blurred or even disappeared, so shadow play is suitable for expressing fairy stories of going into the sky, walking on clouds and fighting. Second, the value and significance of shadow play is one of the earliest operas in China. Its performance equipment is light, its singing is rich and beautiful, and its performance is wonderful and moving. For thousands of years, thunder has been loved by people, so it has spread widely. And shadow play has played a certain role in the development of culture and art at home and abroad. There are many new local operas, all of which are derived from the vocals of various shadow plays. The performance principle and artistic means of Chinese shadow play also played a leading role in the invention of modern film and the development of modern film art film. The western world, from Goethe in the18th century to Chaplin later, as well as other world cultural celebrities, spoke highly of the art of Chinese shadow play. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), leaders of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other countries have entertained domestic and foreign guests with shadow play for many times. However, after the Cultural Revolution disaster, the endangered situation of shadow play art has not been reversed. As for the modeling and production of characters and scenery in shadow play, it belongs to the category of Chinese folk art. . In order to adapt to the shadow performance of shadow play, it adopts the method of combining abstraction with realism, and makes bold comprehensive treatment of characters and scenes such as planarization, artistry, cartoonization and dramatization. His facial makeup and costumes are vivid and exaggerated. Or simple and rude, or exquisite and romantic. In addition, smooth carving, gorgeous coloring, running through the whole body and flexible craftsmanship are really pleasing to the eye. Shadow play products (referred to as shadow play) are not only used for the performance of shadow play, but also for everyone to play with their hands. It can also be placed in front of the window or on a white wall as an indoor art decoration. China's shadow play is owned by many museums, collectors, artists and shadow play lovers at home and abroad because of its simple and elegant shape and strong national flavor, and it has both artistic appreciation and collection value. In international communication, China people often give Chinese shadow play as a first-class gift to international friends. In 2003, Daoqing Shadow Play in Huan County, Gansu Province was listed as one of the first pilot projects of "Protection Project of Ethnic and Folk Cultures in China" by the Ministry of People and Culture of China. In 2005, Huanxian Daoqing Shadow Play Protection Center was established, and the government and the people joined hands to participate in cultural protection. On May 20th, 2006, it was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 8, 2007, Yunmeng Shadow Play Art Troupe in Hubei Province and Zheng Fan 'an Shadow Play Studio in Tai 'an City, Shandong Province won the first Cultural Heritage Day Award from the Ministry of Culture. 2011165438+1On October 27th, UNESCO announced that the sixth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage decided to include China Shadow Play in the "Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".