Language art is the art of language and literature. Besides concrete facilities like the stage, puppets and props, the most important and appealing aspect of hand puppetry lies in its plots. Therefore, the playwriting is of huge significance. The script contains large amount of reference from literature and art. The dialogues and the poems of can have more beauty and render the audience more deep feelings when set off by vivid lines by players. Different from other operas, hand puppetry is carried out by one single person.
Script is the soul of any drama and representation of literature art. The picture shows the script of Mr. Shang-yan Hsiao. He wrote every word of it. | Each play of hand puppetry has about 10 roles, all acted by one person most of the time. It is a form of language art to present the lines of all roles. In this picture, Mr. Hsiao was dubbing the lines with the microphone at the backstage. |
When appreciating hand puppetry, we can hear beautiful literature sentences. As hand puppetry has a long history, its literature data are beyond count. These poems and sentence have even more taste and beauty when spoken in Taiwanese and can make people reflect and be touched. Limited by passage length, we have chosen 10 poems for you to appreciate the language art of hand puppetry after looking through many materials.
Most of the people who have watched hand puppetry should have heard about this sentence. It shows the significance of this event and it aroused many people. | This sentence best reflects hand puppetry. Wood-made puppets by themselves have no life and no emotions. They are endowed with life and become vivid because of the player. In real life, some people were not able to have control over their own circumstances, just like the puppets. |
This sentence is best portrayal of the way hand puppetry is performed. It is carried out by one person’s dubbing and storytelling. Therefore, one mouth is able to tell all events throughout history. The performer used his ten fingers to manipulate the puppets. So it is also said that ten fingers can command millions of armies. | In “Pili Hand puppetry” there were words that described the changeability of everything in the world. When faced with changes, even many heroes could do nothing but laughed away. |
The beggar emperor Lyu Wang-sheng in early Shih Yan-wen hand puppetry series had a line that said even very talented people could not succeed it they were born at a wrong time in history. For example, Confucius was trapped by Chenbang though he was a very learned man. Another example is Taigong, who could only fish at Weishui though he had great martial capabilities. And Emperor Chu, he killed himself at Wu Lake. Emperor Han was very weak but he ruled over the whole country. | What a shame! A poem of Yeh Hsiao-chai in “Pili Hand puppetry” said that his love was defeated by reality and his heart was dead. So he decided to throw himself into martial arts and did not want to fall in love any more. To have a deep understanding of this poem one has to have an understanding of this character in the first place. Yeh Hsiao-chai had a tough life and therefore was disheartened. He dedicated himself into learning martial arts and became successful. |
The line of Su Huan-cheng in “Pili Hand puppetry” was very beautiful, through which we can feel the sacredness of this person. That is the beauty and greatness of Chinese literature. |
Those who have watched the early Shih Yan-wen hand puppetry series must know the line of Wang Chung Ren who practiced spider kongfu. It describes Wang Chung Ren very vividly. |
The ugly Chin Chia-hsian in early Shih Yan-wen hand puppetry series also had amazing lines. He was the Chou role and therefore had lots of funny lines. But he was unique in his own way. He reminded people not to judge others by appearance. | Heibai Langjun in earlier Shih Yan-wen made fun of other people’s failures. He was so bad and we can tell that just looking at him. |