Shadow Play

Shadow plays, perhaps better known as shadow puppetry, are a form of folk theatre which uses figures cut out from animal skins or paper. 

It has long been an ancient folk art in China. 

Shadow plays have been around for at least two thousand years. 

A single puppet figure only comes into being after over a dozen processes, including leather making, silhouette painting, carving and coloring. A craftsman may spend several weeks completing the complex processes.

In its heyday, it was not unusual to have 20 or 30 shadow play troupes in a town or city. It’s still common to see their performances on all sorts of occasions, be it festivities, harvest time, during worship, marriages, or new births and birthdays.