Chinese shadow theatre figures

Shadow play (Chinese: 皮影戏, pí yĭng xì) or also known as shadow puppetry is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated figures (shadow puppets) to create the impression of moving humans and other three-dimensional objects.

Shadow puppets are cut-out figures which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-out shapes of the puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. Various effects can be achieved by moving both the puppets and the light source. A talented puppeteer can make the figures appear to walk, dance, fight, nod and laugh.

Shadow play is popular in various cultures; at present more than 20 countries are known to have shadow show troupes. Shadow puppets have a long history in Indonesia, China, India, Greece, Nepal, Turkey, and are a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many other countries around the world.

Chinese[link]

Mainland China[link]

This Chinese shadow puppet is illustrative of the ornate detail that goes into the figures. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Shadow puppetry originated during the Han Dynasty when one of the concubines of Emperor Wu of Han died from an illness. The emperor was devastated, and he summoned his court officers to bring his beloved back to life. The officers made a shape of the concubine using donkey leather. Her joints were animated using 11 separate pieces of the leather, and adorned with painted clothes. Using an oil lamp they made her shadow move, bringing her back to life.^[1][2] Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming Dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. In the 13th century, the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to other Southeastern Asian countries.^[3] The earliest shadow theatre screens were made of mulberry paper. The storytellers generally used the art to tell events between various war kingdoms or stories of Buddhist sources.^[1] Today, puppets made of leather and moved on sticks are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths. In Gansu province, it is accompanied by Daoqing music, while in Jilin, accompanying Huanglong music forms some of the basis of modern opera.^[3]

Chinese shadow puppetry is shown in the 1994 Zhang Yimou film To Live.

Taiwan[link]

The origins of Taiwan's shadow puppetry can be traced to the Chaochow school of shadow puppet theatre. Commonly known as leather monkey shows or leather shows, the shadow plays were popular in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung as early as the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 A.D.). Older puppeteers estimate that there were at least a hundred shadow puppet troupes in southern Taiwan in the closing years of the Qing. Traditionally, the eight to 12-inch puppet figures, and the stage scenery and props such as furniture, natural scenery, pagodas, halls, and plants are all cut from leather. As shadow puppetry is based on light penetrating through a translucent sheet of cloth, the "shadows" are actually silhouettes seen by the audience in profile or face on. Taiwan's shadow plays are accompanied by Chaochow melodies which are often called "priest's melodies" owing to their similarity with the music used by Taoist priests at funerals. A large repertoire of some 300 scripts of the southern school of drama used in shadow puppetry and dating back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been preserved in Taiwan and is considered to be a priceless cultural asset.

Terminology[link]

A number of terms are used to describe the different forms.

• (皮影戏, pí yĭng xì) is a shadow theatre using leather puppets. The figures are usually moved behind a thin screen and is not entirely a show of shadows as it is more of a silhouette shadow. This gives the figures some color, and is not 100% black and white.
• (纸影戏, zhĭ yĭng xì) is paper shadow theatre.
• (中國影戏, zhōng guó yĭng xì) is Chinese shadow theatre.

France[link]

Part of the collection of the Museo del PRECINEMA, Padua

The show began to spread to Europe in the mid-18th century, when French missionaries in China took it back to France in 1767 and put on performances in Paris and Marseilles, causing quite a stir. In time, the Ombres chinoises (French for "Chinese Shadows") with local modification and embellishment, became the Ombres françaises and struck root in the country.

The art was a popular entertainment in Paris during the 19th century, especially in the famous nightclub district of Montmartre. The tradition in France dates back to at least the mid-18th century when it was brought back by travellers to the Orient. The puppeteer Dominique Séraphin first presented the spectacle in Paris in 1776, and in Versailles in 1781.

The cabaret Le Chat noir ("The Black Cat") produced a number of popular Ombres chinoises shows in the 1880s, organized by the artist Henri Rivière, using up to 20 assistants and a large, oxy-hydrogen back-lit performance area. The Ombres evolved into numerous theatrical productions and had a major influence on phantasmagoria.^[4]

Nowadays, several theatre companies in France are developing the practice of shadow puppets. We can quote the companies: Le Théâtre des Ombres, Le Théâtre du Petit Miroir, Le Théâtre Les Chaises, La Loupiote.

In Italy, the Museum of Precinema collezione Minici Zotti in Padua houses a collection of 70 French shadow puppets, similar to those used in the cabaret Le Chat Noir, together with an original theatre and painted backdrops, as well as two magic lanterns for projecting scenes. So far, the shadow plays identified are La Marche a l'Etoile, La Sphinx, L'Age d'Or and Le Carneval de Venise, and it is supposed that the shadow puppets were created for the tournee in France or abroad at the end of the 19th century. This is an important donation by the Fondazione Centro Studi della Barbariga.

India[link]

Hanuman and Ravana in Tholu Bommalata, the shadow puppet tradition of Andhra Pradesh, India

It was claimed by Sunul Chakraborty that the ancient Indian art of storytelling with the help of pictures began with the Harappans civilization. Several Harappan seals show ancient Indian traditional folk tale in a progression of scenes. This archaeological finds prove that pat, the folk painting of Bengal, exist before the arrival of the Aryans in India. Modern Indian names for these forms are: Killekyata, Killikets (these two also present shadow plays), citrakathi, c[h]itrakar, patua, patidar, pat, par, para, etc. Their ancient names were: yamapattaka, mankha, maskari, and saubhika. There is however, a lack of agreement on the meaning of the word saubhika which is mentioned in the ancient texts, although the majority of scholars consider the meaning to be either "picture showman" or "shadow player".^[5]

Shadow puppets remained popular until recently in modern India,^[6] including the Tholu Bommalata of Andhra Pradesh and the Togalu Gombeyaata, leather puppets in Karnataka.^[7]

Indonesia[link]

Wayang Kulit shadowplay performance in Yogyakarta.

Shadow puppet theater is called Wayang kulit in Indonesia and it is particularly popular in Java and Bali. The term derived from the word wayang literally means shadow or imagination in Javanese, also connotes "spirit". The word kulit means skin, as the material from which the puppet is made is thin perforated leather sheets made from buffalo skin.

The performances of shadow puppet theater are accompanied by gamelan in Java. In Bali it is known as wayang kulit, and originally lasted as long as six hours or until dawn. The complete wayang kulit troupes include dalang (puppet master), nayaga (gamelan players), and sinden (female choral singer). Some of the nayaga also performed as male choral singer. The dalang (puppet master) played the wayang behind the cotton screen illuminated by oil lamp or modern halogen lamp, creating visual effects similar to animation. The flat puppet has moveable joints that are animated by hand, using rods connected to the puppet. The handle of the rod is made of carved buffalo horn. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Malaysia[link]

In Malaysia, shadow puppet plays are also known as wayang kulit. In Malay, Wayang means shadow or imagination, while Kulit means skin and refers to the leather that puppets are made from. Stories presented are usually mythical & morality tales. There is an educational moral to the plays which usually portray a battle between Malay shadow plays are sometimes considered one of the earliest examples of animation. The wayang kulit in northern states of Malaysia such as Kelantan is influenced and similar to Thai shadow puppets, while the wayang kulit in southern Malay peninsula, especially in Johor is influenced by Javanese wayang kulit.

The puppets are made primarily of leather and manipulated with sticks or buffalo horn handles. Shadows are cast using an oil lamp or, in modern times, a halogen light, onto a cotton cloth background. They are often associated with gamelan music.

Cambodia[link]

The shadow play is also popular in Cambodia. It is performed during sacred temple ceremonies, at private functions, and for the public in the villages. The performance is accompanied with Pinpeat orchestra in Cambodia.

Thailand[link]

A Nang drama player and puppet.

Shadow theatre in Thailand is called Nang Yai; in the south there is a tradition called nang Talung (หนังตะลุง). Nang Yai puppets are normally made of cowhide and rattan. Performances are normally accompanied by a combination of songs and chants. Performances in Thailand were temporarily suspended in 1960 due to a fire at the national theatre. Nang drama has influenced modern Thai cinema, including filmmakers like Cherd Songsri and Payut Ngaokrachang.^[8]

The Ottoman Shadow Play and its Turkish descendants[link]

The Turkish tradition of shadow play called Karagöz and Hacivat was widespread throughout the Ottoman Empire and featured characters representing all of the major ethnic and social groups in that culture.^[9][10] It was performed by a single puppet master, who voiced all of the characters, and accompanied by tambourine (def). Its origins are obscure, deriving perhaps from an older Egyptian tradition, or possibly from an Asian source.

During the 19th century these characters were adapted to the Greek language and culture, Karagöz and Hacivat becoming Karagiozis and Hadjiavatis with each of the characters assuming stereotypically Greek personalities. This tradition thrived throughout Greece after independence as popular entertainment for a largely adult audience, particularly before competition arose from television. The stories did, however, retain the period setting in the late years of the Ottoman Empire. Karagiozis theatre has undergone some revival in recent years, with the intended audience tends largely juvenile.

Shadow puppetry today[link]

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Shadow puppeteer, 2006

In the 1910s the German animator Lotte Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation as a format, whereby shadow play-like puppets are filmed frame-by-frame. This technique has been kept alive by subsequent animators and is still practised today, though cel animation and computer animation has also been used to imitate the look of shadow play and silhouette animation.

Shadow theatre itself is still popular in many parts of Asia. Prahlad Acharya is one famous Indian magician who incorporates it into his performances.

It also appears occasionally in western popular culture, for example in:

• The children's television show Bear in the Big Blue House
• The staging of Jethro Tull's Rock Island tour
• The 1983 film The Year of Living Dangerously, opens with a scene from an Indonesian Wayang shadow play
• The 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America, where it is occasionally seen in the Opium house.
• The 1998 short film Humdrum
• The 2002 horror film Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
• The 7th Season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia has an extensive variety of Chinese shadow puppets in their Asian collection.^{[citation needed]}
• The entertainer Bablu Mallick, who used used shadow play in his act during 1980's TV appearances, including on Paul Daniels Magic Show.^[11]
• The 2007 music video "Twice" by Little Dragon
• The 2010 film The Karate Kid

Australia[link]

Richard Bradshaw OAM is a famous Australian shadow puppeteer. His character Super Kangaroo is just one in his varied repertoire.^[12] The skill of Bradshaw has been featured in television programs made by Jim Henson.

The Shadow Theatre of Anaphoria (relocated to Australia from California) combines a mixture of reconstructed and original puppets with multiple sources of lights. The company is under the direction of Kraig Grady.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Wayang kulit as seen by the audience

• 

  Wayang kulit puppet in Bali, Indonesia

• 

  Karagöz and Hacivat

• 

  

  Short video showing shadow play in Kota Bahru, Malaysia, including behind the scenes

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Currell, David, An Introduction to Puppets and Puppetmaking, New Burlington Books, (1992) ISBN 1-85348-389-3
• Logan, David, Puppetry, Brisbane Dramatic Arts Company (2007) ISBN 978-0-9804563-0-1
• Fan Pen Chen tr., "Visions for the Masses; Chinese Shadow Plays from Shaanxi and Shanxi", Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series, (2004) ISBN 978-1-885445-21-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shadow play

• Greek Shadows, an interactive, educational website on Greek shadow-theater
• The History of the Discovery of Cinematography, an illustrated chronology
• Shadow Theatre of Anaphoria
• Interactive, educational website on Greek shadow-theater
• Contemporary examples of shadow-play by The Clockwork Moth

Rory Gallagher
Gallagher, at the Manchester Apollo in 1982
Background information
Birth name	William Rory Gallagher
Also known as	Liam Rory Gallagher
Born	(1948-03-02)2 March 1948 Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland
Died	14 June 1995(1995-06-14) (aged 47) London, England
Genres	Blues, blues-rock, hard rock, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, jazz, folk, skiffle
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin, saxophone, sitar, harmonica, banjo, dulcimer, dobro
Years active	1963–1995
Labels	Polydor, Chrysalis, Buddah, Castle
Associated acts	Taste
Website	www.rorygallagher.com
Notable instruments
1961 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster

William Rory Gallagher,  /ˈrɔriː ˈɡæləhər/ GAL-ə-hər; 2 March 1948  – 14 June 1995,^[1][2] was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland,^[3] and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste during the late 1960s. A talented guitarist known for his charismatic performances and dedication to his craft, Gallagher's albums have sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide.^[4][5] Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that year in London, England at the age of 47.^[6]

Biography[link]

Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal; his father, Daniel, was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board, who were constructing a hydro-electric power plant on the Erne River above the town. The family moved, first to Derry City, where his younger brother Dónal was born in 1949, and then to Cork, where the two brothers were raised, and where Rory attended the North Monastery School. Their father had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceile Band whilst in Donegal; their mother Monica was a singer and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon. The Theatre in Ballyshannon where Monica once acted is now called the Rory Gallagher Theatre.

Both sons were musically inclined and encouraged by their parents: at age nine, Gallagher received his first guitar from them. He built on his burgeoning ability on ukelele in teaching himself to play the guitar and perform at minor functions. After winning a talent contest when he was twelve, Gallagher began performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar he bought with his prize money. However, it was his purchase three years later of a 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 that became his primary instrument most associated with him for the span of his lifetime.^[7]

Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio. Donegan frequently covered blues and folk performers from the United States. He relied entirely on radio programs and television. Occasionally, the jazz programs from the BBC would play some blues numbers, and he slowly found some song books for guitar, where he found the names of the actual composers of blues pieces. While still in school, playing songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, he discovered his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. Subsequently, Gallagher began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music. Unable to find or afford record albums, Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most.^[8] Influences he discovered, and cited as he progressed, included Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lead Belly. Initially, Gallagher struck out after just an acoustic sound.^[7] Singing and later using a brace for his harmonica, Gallagher taught himself to play slide guitar. Further, throughout the next few years of his musical development, Gallagher began learning to play alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the coral sitar with varying degrees of proficiency.^[9] By his mid-teens, he began experimenting heavily with different blues styles.^[10]

Gallagher began playing after school with Irish showbands, while still a young teenager. In 1963,^[11] he joined one named Fontana, a sextet playing the popular hit songs of the day.^[12] The band toured Ireland and the United Kingdom, earning the money for the payments that were due on his Stratocaster guitar. Gallagher began to influence the band's repertoire, beginning its transition from popular music, skirting along some of Chuck Berry's songs and by 1965, he had successfully molded Fontana into "The Impact", with a change in their lineup into an R&B group that played gigs in Ireland and Spain until disbanding in London.^[9] Gallagher left with the bassist and drummer to perform as a trio in Hamburg, Germany.^[11] In 1966, Gallagher returned to Ireland and, experimenting with other musicians back home in Cork, decided to form his own band.

Taste[link]

Gallagher on acoustic guitar, March 1976, Breda, Netherlands

Having completed a musical apprenticeship in the showbands, and influenced by the increasing popularity of beat groups during the early 1960s, Gallagher formed "The Taste", which was later renamed simply, "Taste", a blues rock and R&B power trio, in 1966.^[13] Initially, the band was composed of Gallagher and two Cork musicians, Norman Damery and Eric Kitteringham, however, by 1968, they were replaced with two musicians from Belfast, featuring Gallagher on guitar and vocals, drummer John Wilson, and bassist Richard McCracken.^[13] Performing extensively in the United Kingdom, the group played regularly at the Marquee Club, supporting both Cream at their Royal Albert Hall farewell concert, and the blues supergroup Blind Faith on a tour of North America. Managed by Eddie Kennedy, the trio released the albums Taste and On The Boards, and two live recordings, Live Taste and Live at the Isle of Wight.^[13] The latter appeared long after the band's break-up, which occurred shortly after their appearance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.^[14]

Solo career[link]

After the break-up of Taste, Gallagher toured under his own name, hiring former Deep Joy bass player Gerry McAvoy to play on Gallagher's self-titled debut album, Rory Gallagher.^[15] It was the beginning of a twenty-year musical relationship between Gallagher and McAvoy; the other band member was drummer Wilgar Campbell.^[13] The 1970s were Gallagher's most prolific period. He produced ten albums in that decade, including two live albums, Live in Europe and Irish Tour '74. November 1971 saw the release of his album, Deuce.^[15] In the same year he was voted Melody Maker's International Top Musician of the Year, ahead of Eric Clapton.^[16] However, despite a number of his albums from this period reaching the UK Albums Chart, Gallagher did not attain major star status.^[13]