All the way from Macao and Taiwan comes a magical production of traditional and modern Chinese shadow plays! Mingled with stories from Journey to the West and famous animation figures, learn about shadow play history and the basic techniques of making and manipulating puppets. Shadow play, or shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment. Shadow play has a long history in Southeast Asia, existing as an ancient art and a living folk tradition in China, India and Nepal.
Show Synopsis
We introduce Chinese traditional and modern shadow plays in a performative form called lecture performance. Without language barrier, the master demonstrates classical episode from Journey to the West and mingled with some well-known animation figures. Audiences would get fun through dynamic interaction and actual experiences of basic making and manipulations on stage.
Main Characters
Sun Wukong孫悟空( the Monkey King) Sun Wukong was born in a magic stone. One day he told the old dragon.King there was a magic stick, Sun Wukong tried a lot of methods, finally got the golden cudgel, he had this golden cudgel to heaven and God to fight, the Jade Emperor win the support of Sun Wukong, when the Buddha came, he and Sun Wukong fight, Sun Wukong was finally crushed in the under the Five Elements mountain. Sun Wukong is the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang was released. Later, Sun Wukong and pig and Friar sand together to help Xuan Zang to the west. Sun Wukong is a man that defend someone. He is constantly reproved for his violence by Tang Sanzang. Ultimately, he can only be controlled by a magic gold ring that Guanyin has placed around his head, which causes him unbearable headaches when Tang Sanzang chants the Ring Tightening Mantra.
Bull Demon King 牛魔王 His wife Princess Iron Fan, his son the Red Boy, the Six Eared Macaque, and the Baigujing. Bull King is based in the Sky Scraping Cave (in Chinese: 摩雲洞) on Accumulated Thunder Mountain (in Chinese: 積雷山). Sun Wukong’s best friend.
Princess Iron Fan 鐵扇公主 The pilgrims encounter an extremely hostile range of volcanic mountains and can only pass if the volcanoes become inactive. Her fan, made from banana leaves, is extremely large and has magical properties, as it can create giant whirlwinds. Sun Wukong wants to borrow her fan, but she turns him down as the monkey has been on bad terms with her husband before. Sun Wukong, however, is crafty and has ever better tactics for subduing his enemies. He transforms into a fly and flies into her mouth, down her throat, and into her soft belly. Once inside, the monkey kicks and punches Princess Iron Fan's guts until she is in so much pain that she gives him a fake fan which intensifies the flames instead of putting them out. Having barely escaped from the fire, Sun Wukong returns, pretending to be her husband through shape shifting and obtains the fan. Soon afterwards, the real husband comes home, angry at what has happened, he pretends to be the Pig (Zhu Bajie) also through shape shifting and offers to carry the big fan. Lost in the moment of victory, Sun Wukong carelessly believes the Bull King and hands over the fan. Later, the Jade Emperorsends his heavenly troops to help Sun Wukong defeat Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan for good, and she is forced to give them the real fan.
Zhu Bajie 豬八戒 (Pigsy) Zhu Bajie, literally "Eight Precepts Pig", sometimes translated as Pigsy or just Pig. He was previously the Marshal of the Heavenly Canopy, a commander of Heaven's naval forces, and was banished to the mortal realm for flirting with the moon goddess Chang'e. A reliable fighter, he is characterised by his insatiable appetites for food and women, and is constantly looking for a way out of his duties, which causes significant conflict with Sun Wukong
Tang Sanzang 唐三藏 (Monk Tang) Tang Sanzang sets out to bring back Buddhist scriptures from Leiyin Temple on Vulture Peak in India, but encounters various evils along the way. The section is set in the sparsely populated lands along the Silk Roadbetween China and India, including Xinjiang, Turkestan, and Afghanistan. The geography described in the book is, however, almost entirely fantasy; once Tang Sanzang departs Chang'an, the Tang capital, and crosses the frontier (somewhere in Gansu province), he finds himself in a wilderness of deep gorges and tall mountains, inhabited by demons and animal spirits, who regard him as a potential meal (since his flesh was believed to give immortality to whoever ate it), with the occasional hidden monastery or royal city-state amidst the harsh setting.
Ao Guang 龍王(The East Sea Dragon King) Ao Guang is the Dragon King of the East Sea in Chinese religion. In Journey to the West, the monkey king Sun Wukong obtained his Ruyi Jingu Bang, a magically-expanding, gold-ringed iron rod weapon, from Ao Guang. This weapon was originally a stick for measuring the depth of sea water used by Yu the Great in his flood control and treatment efforts; hence its ability to vary its shape and length. After Yu left, it remained in the sea and became the "Pillar holding down the sea", an unmovable treasure of the undersea palace of Ao Guang.