| Puppet show, one of the most important art forms of opera in ancient China, Since ancient times, puppet show has been enjoying a long-standing reputation because of its various types of performing and singing. And the author decides to take Pingnan Muppet shows, which is the indispensible member of the family of Fujian puppet shows, as the topic of this paper, and he also believes that it’s very worthwhile to make an intensive study of the internal artistic and historical values of the performances.According to the current research situation, so far, Fujian scholars in this circle have made abundant studies about Muppet shows of Minnan (south Fujian) like Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, but there seems to be far less researches of Mindong (east Fujian) puppet shows, which shows that Mindong does not live up to its name of "the hometown of Fujian folk dramas" and "the museum of folk dramas". Therefore, the paper tries to dig into the unique regional culture of Mindong from different perspectives and then arouse social concerns of protecting the precious intangible heritages which are in danger of disappearing, and that obviously makes the research both culturally and realistically meaningful.The objects investigated are Muppet shows in Xiekeng Village of Lingxia County, Pingnan Town, Ningde City, Fujian Province. Based on field work, the thesis employs philology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, iconology, art theories and cultural science to analyze and investigate the historic origin, craftsmanship, artistic style and current situation of Pingnan Muppet shows. The author has spent half a year doing field investigation in Pingnan. When living with Brothers Lu, the representative inheritors of Pingnan Muppet shows, the author got to know the everyday life of the local people and watched many Muppet shows there, and has accumulated plenty of first-hand materials. By doing that, the author tries to know the real living conditions and mental states of the artists, so that people can get a better understanding of the real history reflected by the simple puppet shows. Meanwhile, the author hopes that the art might be under better protections and be better inherited in the future. |
