TWB - Who Are The Storytellers? (Chinese Shadow Puppets)

By flickering candlelight, Chinese storytellers have been telling tales with exquisite, colourful shadow puppets for over two-thousand years. Surviving war, famine, regime changes and revolutions, this is one of the world's oldest and most intricate storytelling traditions. I look at the music, singing, and puppetry of the artform, the training its mastery requires, why it has a decentralized, anarchist structure, how it survived its tumultuous history, and what a future version of Chinese shadow puppetry might look like.

Welcome to The Wandering Bard, a bonus historical series on Stories from the Hearth examining the history of storytelling. This month’s episode is the third in a season asking "Who are the storytellers?" Today we examine the shadow puppeteers of ancient and modern China.

The next story episode from Stories from the Hearth is out on 26th September. Next month's Wandering Bard bonus episode will take a look at the Arabic rap-battles of Lebanon called Zajal.

The aim of Stories from the Hearth is to rekindle its listeners' love for the ancient art of storytelling (and story-listening), and to bring some small escapism to the frantic energies of the modern world.

Support the podcast from just £2 ($3) on Patreon, and get early access, exclusive content, bonus story-episodes, in-episode shout-outs, and the chance to become part of a wider community. Simply click here: https://www.patreon.com/storiesfromthehearthpodcast

Today's sources: chineseshadowpuppetry.com, China Puppet and Shadow Art Society, UNESCO, travelchinaguide.com, Google Arts & Culture

Video links! - 
Traditional Chinese Shadow Puppet Show, Bazhong, China
Ballerina - Chinese Shadow Puppetry
Clever Monkeys - Chinese Shadow Puppetry
Puppet Master Liu Laoshi Shows Off His Skills

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Fire Daemon Character Artwork by Anna Ferrara
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