One is the product of the combination of two artistic elements, including artistic plastic arts and dramatic arts; Secondly, the harmony and unity of formal beauty and content beauty are embodied in shadow play sculpture and content creation respectively.
The color of shadow play art;
According to the historical data and the actual spread of modern folk shadow play art, it can be inferred and confirmed that shadow play art originated in the Western Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, in Shaanxi, China, while Qin, Jin and Yu, which matured in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in Hebei in the Qing Dynasty.
From the Qing Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the art of Chinese shadow play reached its peak. Many shadow puppeteers have inherited their father's career and passed it on from generation to generation. No matter from the aspects of film production, acting and singing, and popular fields, it has reached the peak of history. At that time, many Wang gentry in the official residence were proud to invite famous teachers to engrave films, store exquisite film boxes and raise private film classes. In folk rural towns, large and small shadow play classes are also different. It is not surprising that there are twenty or thirty film classes in a township and a city. Whether it is a holiday, a bumper harvest, praying for the gods, or a wedding banquet to celebrate the birthday, it is indispensable to sing a shadow. Even this drama (series) has to stay up all night or run for ten and a half months. A temple fair can have several shadow play classes, which is very lively, as you can imagine.
From the Yuan Dynasty in the13rd century, Chinese shadow play art was introduced to Asia and Europe countries such as Persia (Iran), Arabia, Turkey, Siam (Thailand), Myanmar, Malaysia, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
However, the development of Chinese shadow play art is not smooth sailing, and it has experienced ups and downs. In the late Qing Dynasty, some local officials were afraid of gathering people in the dark places of shadow play, so they banned shadow play and even arrested shadow play artists. Shadow puppeteers were also implicated in the Anbaili Uprising in the late Qing Dynasty, and were confiscated on charges of "bandits in Deng Xuan". Before and after the Japanese invasion, due to social unrest and years of war, people lived in poverty, which led to the decline of thousands of households in the shadow play industry.
After liberation, the remaining shadow puppetry classes and artists in China were reborn with the care and support of the Party and the government. Since 1955, shadow play performances have been organized at national, provincial and municipal levels, and delegations have been sent abroad to visit performances for many times, and cultural and artistic exchanges have been made, which has made great achievements. However, during the Cultural Revolution, the art of shadow play suffered another bad luck. Ten years of catastrophe destroyed the shadow play widely hidden among the people.
After the reform and opening up, although the traditional culture has a revived political environment, it is still difficult to reverse the endangered situation of shadow play under the impact of new technologies such as contemporary film and television audio and mass entertainment. At present, the only way out is to boldly reform and innovate on the basis of inheriting the tradition, so that the shadow play art can adapt to the requirements of the new era, bring people refreshing artistic enjoyment, and let the shadow play art get out of the trough and show its elegance again.