Shi Gandang Fights the Hungry Wolf
12, 13/5│Saturday, Sunday│3pm, 4pm, 5pm
Mandarin's House
Free admission
Puppeteer: Fan Zheng’an
A unique art form that evolved from the combination of a traditional craft and the music of Chinese Opera, theancient folk art of the Taishan Puppet Show has been a cherished favourite of the general public for thousands ofyears. Also dubbed the ‘mini-figurine show’ or the ‘dancing shadows’, the Taishan puppet shows of Shandong enjoy a long history, and the repertoire draws primarily on tales from Taishan culture. The principal song form is Shandong Dagu (meaning big-drum recitative), characterised by a vigorous yet soft quality. In 2006, the Taishan puppet show of Shandong was successfully inscribed on the list of Shandong Province Intangible Cultural Heritage and, the following year, on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
A representative inheritor of Shandong Shadow Puppetry, Fan Zheng’an is best known for being able to simultaneously perform, manipulate, accompany, sing and narrate in his shows, earning him the name Shibuxian (literally ‘doing ten things at a time’). He is currently the sole puppeteer to have mastered this extremely complicated and difficult set of skills.
Duration: approximately 20 minutes, no interval
