Ｃｈｉｎａ Ｆｏｌｋ Ｓｈａｄｏｗ Ｐｌａｙ Ｐｅｒｆｏｒｍｉｎｇ Ｇｒｏｕｐ ｉｎ Ａｕｓｔｒｉａ ａｎｄ Ｇｅｒｍａｎｙ

Ｗａｎｇ　Ｗｅｉ

Sent by the CPAFFC, the Daoqing Shadow Play Performing Group (alias Shi Family Troupe) of Huanxian County, Gansu Province made a performance tour in Austria and Germany from October 22 to November 5, 2007, during which it attended the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Mistelbach of Austria and gave performance at the opening ceremony of the International Puppet Art Festival in Bad Kreuznach of Germany. The performance tour was made at the invitation of the Austrian Association for Promotion of Friendship and Cultural Relations with China (AAPFCRC).

All the performers of the Daoqing Shadow Play Performing Group are ordinary farmers who have inherited the shadow play techniques from the older generations of their families or learned them since childhood. Their artistic style is simple and distinctive and shadow puppet figures are exquisite and unique. The main performer of the group,the 61-year-old Shi Chenglin, gave performances in Italy and caused a sensation there when he visited the country together with a CPAFFC delegation in 1987. Twenty years later, he led the Shi Family Troupe to give performances abroad again, demonstrating Chinese farmer performers artistic attainments and vitality in the new era of China.

On October 23, at the seminar on the Chinese folk puppet and shadow show sponsored by the AAPFCRC, the group performed traditional items with distinct Daoqing shadow play features for the Austrian and German professionals and students in stage arts. The audience marveled at the beautiful vocal music, puppet figures and backdrop of the Daoqing shadow play.

After finishing the performance in Vienna, that night the performers rushed to Mistelbach, a small city in Lower Austria 50 kilometres away from Vienna. Mistelbach is the centre of puppet and shadow show art in Austria and the whole Europe as well. Every October the International Puppet Theatre Festival is held in the city. Up till now the festival has been held for 29 years. The puppet and shadow play troupes from Beijing and Hunan have given performances there, giving the European audience an artistic treat. Different from the past, this time the shadow play troupe was an amateur one. Though its stage design and equipment were not as good as those of the professional troupes, its performances imbued with rich local colour fascinated the European audience. The Shi Family Troupe performed The Monkey King Subdues the White-Bone Demon Three Times, The Monkey King Wreaks Havoc in Heaven, etc. When they learnt that all the shadow puppets were operated by Shi Chenglin alone, they were greatly surprised. After the performance, the audience came to the back stage, trying to find out the secrets of the “ancient art from the East”. During their stay in the city, the performers attended the seminar on the Chinese and European shadow play art sponsored by the municipal government, at which they gave accounts of the history and current situation of the shadow play of Huanxian County and the life of the shadow players. Ms. Helga Ruso, director general of the Cultural Bureau of Mistelbach, said that the year 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Festival and expressed the hope that Chinese puppet and shadow play troupes would come to attend it then. During the Festival the Huanxian County shadow show performers watched performances given by players of other countries and had discussions with them about performing techniques.

After finishing performing in Austria, the group went to Bad Kreuznach of Germany to give a show at the opening ceremony of the International Puppet Art Festival held in the citys puppet theatre museum. Mr. Dorner, curator of the museum, received the performers warmly and invited them as the only group performing at the opening ceremony to attend the Art Festivals press conference. On the evening of November 1, all seats in the theatre of the museum were taken. After a brief introduction of the background and scenarios of the plays, the Chinese group performed several items such as Flooding the Jinshan Temple, Juggling Feats, etc. Bursts of warm applause broke out at the highlights of the performance. After the performance, many from the audience including professional puppet players consulted the Chinese performers on the art. A professional puppet playwright who specially came from Paris to watch the performance said that she had listened to the vocal music in Daoqing shadow play from the tape before and that she felt greatly thrilled when listening to such a tensile and simple music on the spot.

The short 10-day performance tour publicized to the European audience the Daoqing shadow play art, one of the Chinese intangible cultural heritages, and the local customs and farmers cultural life in Gansu, helping them know more about the rich traditional culture of Chinas interior.