Reflection on the Significance of Puppetry in China (1924-1940)

China is an oriental country with a splendid, ancient civilization that was baptized in blood and fire at the beginning of the 20^th century. Countless disasters rendered China into a nation with ‘territories ripped apart, citizens sunk low and no good news could ever be heard (Liu, 1)!’

In 1924, China’s people waged a revolutionary war under the leadership of Nationalist Party of China (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP), against the rule of northern warlords, who had divided up the country after the fall of the Manchu Dynasty. After the vigorous political struggle, it seemed as if China was about to reborn. However, in April 1924, the breakdown of cooperation between KMT and CCP sent China back into a slippery mire. The Chinese people continued their revolt against the corrupt political situation in order to prevent national subjugation and genocide. This motivated cultural workers and young returning exiles to throw themselves with perseverance into the patriotic struggle. In order to further promote revolution and to educate the mass public, literary enlightenment was emphasized. Influenced by international leftist cultural movements, domestic cultural changes were carried out on a large scale to cater to the needs of the civil revolution. At that moment, with the rise of the proletarian revolutionary movement, it was advocated that literature and art must serve workers and peasants. Leftist scholars pointed out that a proletarian revolutionary culture could only be created by following the course of popularization, because ‘Art belongs to the people and it finds its deepest roots among the working class (qtd.in Cao, 60).’

As part of this historical movement, the puppet show, as an art form that could stimulate and organize the people directly, developed at an unprecedented rate. This was a U-turn from previous attitudes that questioned puppet theater’s artistic value in literature and art world. In 1929, Tao Jingsun, a Chinese intellectual educated in Japan, took the lead by writing about the value of puppetry after he returned to Shanghai. He published relevant articles in Popular Literature, a journal published by the CCP, to introduce puppetry. In it he made an extensive survey of the history, production, and scripting of puppet shows and the artistic concepts and opinions of domestic and foreign artists. Being a promoter of public art, Tao Jinsun, helped to arouse attention of puppetry among the social elites. As a result of his work, progressive literary and art workers quickly recognized puppetry’s value. Yang Jinhao, a famous publisher during the Republican Period, said that, ‘if the corrupted parts are to be removed, puppets can educate both the literate and the illiterate.’ He also wrote, ‘to raise the anti-war awareness, the feasibility of its (puppetry’s] content should be given special attention (Yang, 15).’

Zheng Boqi also recognized the unique artistic value of puppets shows and regarded them as ‘the new weapons in art movements’ whose advantage lay in their ‘irony and satire which means that its effectiveness stayed beyond human shows (Zheng, 2).’

These writers recognized the abundant merits endowing puppetry with unparalleled significance. Leftist scholars paid attention to its practice as well. As early as 1930, Tao Jingsun, in response to the Proletarian Literary and New Drama Movements, spearheaded the promotion of a new type of puppetry and established the ‘Woodman Opera Society’, the first Communist-based drama institution under KMT prefecture,. He proposed a new form of puppetry, combining drama and puppet shows together with fine stage art, aimed at revolutionizing and motivating the public and disclosing imperialistic aggression. Kantai and Xiongzhi, Freight Car and It’s Slave After All were the three plays created by Mr. Tao and performed in public in Shanghai. They all belonged to the new puppetry, designed to enlighten the people and comment on current affairs. In Kantai and Xiongzhi, two Japanese farmers were conscripted and dispatched to China, where they did evil deeds. Gradually, a change of awareness came about after they took part in the labor movement. They end up being arrested by the Japanese police and put into jail. Freight Car depicted the story of a teenage laborer who was bullied by the rich and police. Ultimately, he can only be saved by revolutionaries. It’s Slave After All was created to protest against racial discrimination. These three plays with distinctive political meanings became popular among literary and art workers.

In April 1930, one of the art institutions created a puppet show version of the anti-war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. But unfortunately, little knowledge about this show’s content and artistic style have survived because, not long after it was produced, the art institution was banned by the KMT authorities. Political prosecution and strained finances greatly hampered the development of vanguard puppetry institutions like Tao’s. However, despite these difficulties, it is undeniable that puppetry played an indispensable role in publicizing advanced culture and country-saving ideologies to enlighten the public. It remained a powerful vehicle in the cultural polarization movement.

There are several reasons that contributed to puppet theater’s popularity:

First, puppetry was closely related with folk rite and customs. It has a long history in Chinese culture, with origins in the Han Dynasty and reaching its peak of popularity in the Tang and Song Dynasties. With this history of over 2,000 years, and its intuition and figurativeness that appealed to popular and elite audiences alike, it became a most effective carrier of cultural dissemination and art publicity.

Second, puppet shows can be presented by a single performer, with no restrictions in the playing place. This flexibility in puppetry’s scale, and its minimal technical requirements, also constitutes a catalyst for its dissemination.

Third, a large amount of money were being invested in drama and traditional Chinese Operas because of the trend for pursuing further excellence in Arts. Compared with other artistic forms, puppetry was relatively cheap to produce, which made it affordable for most non-profit-seeking art workers.

Lastly, the artistic characteristics of puppet performance closely paralleled the political realities of China at the time and brought unparalleled inspiration to the audience. For most of the first half of the 20^th Century, China was confronting a terribly corrupt political situation internally, with constant attacks by outside imperialist powers. People of noble aspirations often compared China’s situation to that of a manipulated puppet. The caption for one cartoon in 1926 argued that ‘China’s was a puppet that the USSR pulled the strings, while foreign powers such as UK, US, France, Japan looked on. (Eastern Magazine, 43).’ This intricate irony made literati such as Zheng Boqi sigh ‘our society is a puppetry show for real (Lu, 118-123).’

The puppet show represents the Renaissance discovery (or rediscovery) in China. It had an artistic impact on the forms and content of every creative practice. The works were intentionally made by professional artists in a challenge to existing norms and social ideology. It was worth mentioning that more literary and art workers devoted themselves to the creation and used puppetry as a tool to educate the public. Chen He Qin, the child educator, published an article titled the Puppet Show and pointed out that puppetry should be introduced and involved into elementary schools. Yu Zheguang and Wang Shixin also joined in the relative studies. During 1935 and 1940, with the rapid development of puppetry society in Shanghai, a series of plays were both artistic and educative. The exploration of puppet shows boosted its social functions and artistic values, which influenced its development and ushered in the era of new puppetry. Puppet artists in a variety of genres and fields were expected to support and glorify their social cause. This echoes what Zolberg said, “art came to be constructed as inhabiting a new social sphere (Zolberg, 2014).” The styles of puppet are not just confined within its genre, they have characterized various art forms, from the visual to the literary, and they tended to retain their spiritual standing as history moves along.

Works Cited

Liu, Yazi. "20^th Century Grande Stage’s foreword to a new periodical "20^th Century Grande Stage, September 1904, 1.

Cao, Shujun. Troupe Union and Leftist Arts Movements. Shanghai, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, November 2014.

Yang, Jinhao. “Theory of Active Arts. Shanghai”, Shanghai Shen Newspaper, 7^th January 1939.

Zheng, Boqi. “Puppetry as a weapon”, Popular Culture & Arts, 1930.

Eastern Magazine. Current Affairs Cartoons, 1926.

Lu, sun. Wuchang Arts, 1937.

Vera L Zolberg “A Cultural Sociology of the arts”, Current Sociology, 2014