Traditional glove puppetry was mainly from Fujian’s Changchow and Quanzhou, as well as Guangdong Chaozhou areas. So the background music of glove puppetry was mostly Southern wind music and Chaozhou music. During the end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Qing Dynasty, northern wind operas gained popularity. Glove puppetry also started to use northern wind music. Therefore, southern wind music, Chaozhou music and northern wind music became most frequently used background music of glove puppetry.
In 1942, the Japanese government was pushing “Kominka Movement”. So there were music CD, modern music and Japanese music. In the late 1970s, Toshio Huan’s hand puppetry started to be on TV. The background music in televised puppetry was then also used in outdoor performance. The southern and northern wind music was also replaced by theme songs. In 1990s, “Pili Hand puppetry” became very popular and had an impact on Taiwan’s hand puppetry. But due to copyright concerns, “Pili Hand puppetry” gradually turned to self-created music. Currently, there are only 2 or 3 troupes that still use live music played at site, like New Paradise Hand Puppetry Troupe, Ye Yuan Ran Hand Puppetry Troupe, and Little Siyuan Hand Puppetry Troupe. Other troupes mainly use digital music controlled. Traditional hand puppetry was from Fujian’s Changzhou, Quanzhou and Guangdong’s Chaozhou areas. Therefore, hand puppetry often uses southern wind music and Chaozhou accent. However, since northern wind opera gained popularity during the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, hand puppetry started to use northern wind music as well.
In the early times, hand puppetry has special southern and northern wind music. The picture shows the performance of southern and northern wind opera held by Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau. | The instruments used then included Chinese violin, suona horn, drum, cymbal and gong. |
Since the introduction of music CD, bands were replaced gradually to save manpower. The music style changed to modern music like pop music. | With the development of technology, the background music of hand puppetry has become digital music. |