From September 21st to 27th, the 5th “Golden Lion” National Technique Competition for Young Mid-aged Puppeteers was held in Harbin. The Competition was sp...
From September 21st to 27th, the 5th “Golden Lion” National Technique Competition for Young Mid-aged Puppeteers was held in Harbin. The Competition was sponsored by China Puppetry and Shadow Art Association, UNIMA China and Harbin Municipal Bureau of Culture, News and Publication, and organized by Children’s Art Theatre of Harbin. 17 troupes from provinces and cities such as Hunan, Henan, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Fujian, Sichuan, Shanghai, etc. with 43 shows participated in the final contest. Genres in this Contest have a big variety, which include rod puppet, stick puppet, string puppet and shadow play.
Beside maintained the features of previous Competitions, such as rich coverage of genres, broad participation range, younger participants, variety of performance types, rich in subjects of shows, plenty of roles, etc. the 5th Contest also reflected the features of professional competition, namely, emphasizing the comprehensive assessment of young actors’ solid skill foundation and manipulation technique. The contest rules had become more strict and standardized. All contestants were performing on the same stage, which redirected the technique competition of young puppeteers back to be emphasizing the competition of puppetry art itself.
One creditable phenomenon in this Contest was that some young puppeteers could practice hard on the basic skills and give themselves into the inheritance and study of traditional classic excerpts; moreover, they could inherit the integrating skills of singing, dialogue and manipulation, and acting and dubbing by themselves to the music of the live band. Based on their hard training and inheritance of traditional skills, some young actors wrote, directed and acted their competing plays all by themselves. They have tried to skillfully apply traditional technique to the molding of characterization and representation of personality, which exemplified the quality of compound talents with thorough techniques.
The competing shows were rich in subjects, various in style, which included the original traditional shows, still flourishing classic excerpts and shows involving difficult technique. Through Chinese opera and dancing, these traditional, modern, mythical, fairy and folk stories displayed distinctive style and characteristics. By highlighting the performing feature of puppetry show and containing implication and innovation, they have invigorated new vitality to the inheritance of puppetry play.
Being regarded as the ‘Forefather of all Plays’, Chinese puppetry and Shadow Play have a long history and profound traditional culture. Having been lasting and flourishing for over thousand years, they have gained popularity among the broad masses. However, like other traditional art, when facing the multicultural shock, Chinese puppetry and shadow play are under survival crisis. Fortunately, recently China as well as other countries begins to attach great importance to this world ancient art form. November 2011, Chinese Shadow Play was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Local governments at various levels have also enforced the protection and support for their own puppetry and shadow play. UNIMA China and China Puppetry and Shadow Art Association also sized this opportune moment and jointly held different kinds of national and international competitions, which provided chances of communication and competing and demonstrating platforms for artists, and promoted the development, influence and popularity of puppetry and shadow play. Therefore, the National Technique Competition for Young Mid-aged Puppeteers, held every two years, and National Puppetry and Shadow Play Competition, held every four years, have become brand events with broad influence and practical platforms dynamically inheriting and protecting puppetry and shadow art, through which new people are recommended and new plays are performed. They played an important role in promoting the value of puppetry and shadow art and the survival and development of different troupes.
So far, the excellent shows displayed during the four Competitions for young puppeteers, have become regular and main shows for cultural exchange. Through which a group of young artists has become the reliable force in every troupe.
The requirements of this Competition are as following: professional artists under the age of 45, and the competing plays or shows should be determined by the first and semi competitions within each troupe. The prizes in this competition including Best Performance, Excellent Performance, Performance, Excellent New Talent, New Talent, Puppetry Design, Music, and Supervisor, etc.
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