FAMOUS sculptor and collector Zhao Shutong did a workshop promoting Chinese shadow play Wednesday evening at the United International College (UIC) Shadow Drama Studio, which came into operation late last year in the Tangjiawan Town institution.
The studio has a collection of more than 200 shadow play props created from the Qing Dynasty onwards. The props were donated by Zhao, a Chinese household-name sculptor who won some fame through the large- scaled controversial clay sculpture Rent Collecting Courtyard during the Cultural Revolution. Also a collector of endangered traditional folk art, Zhao serves as a distinguished professor in the college.
Zhao donated his first collection of 46,000 shadow theatre props to the China Academy of Fine Arts in 2003, which formed a museum there. He has donated 120,000 such props up to date.
"Shadow play is the earliest ancestor of film and television, and it is enormously inclusive," said Zhao. There are shadow play exhibitions in one or two colleges in China, but they are non-curricular. In response, Zhao is managing to promote traditional folk art among the students, he explained.
Despite its small size, shadow play has profound developmental prospects in modern animation. It also shows potential in combining with costume and interior fancy lamp in architectural design, according to Zhao.
A shadow play requires the teamwork of several people to manipulate props; for example, character portraits, costumes, background, tools, carriage, gateway and so on, each being a single fantastic artwork, he stated.
An outstanding traditional folk art, shadow play was also a unique form of manipulated art featuring plastic arts including painting, engraving and arts and handicrafts, performing arts such as drama, ballad and music, as well as optic artistry such as lighting and shadow, Zhao explained.
Shadow play is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture, and thus to promote and innovate the folk art indicates inheriting and carrying it on. Highly virtual in form, it has splendid prospects when combined with high technology and gives birth to shadow theatre, Zhao said.
Students can stage the shadow play and appreciate it after class. At the same time, training organisations and related departments can come to perform and train the manipulators at UIC. Not only this, the studio can set up a platform for cultural exchange and character innovation. For example, we can play Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote and other foreign literary works, Zhao noted.
"Many courses are undergone in English at UIC, and numbers of students go abroad to study each year. I hope they can bring the traditional shadow play to where they go and make it known to more foreigners," Zhao said.
A shadow play market with joint performances of various characters might take place soon so that the students can learn and do research there, he revealed.
Shadow play prop makers and performers will also provide teaching sessions at the studio, a spokesperson announced.
The studio has collections of props for more than 220 well-known shadow plays such as Master Mounts the Sedan, Play on the Swings and Four Little Swans, and comprises the Tangshan and Shannxi shadow plays of the Qing Dynasty and those created during the Liberation War period and later times. Some were designed by Zhao and produced by famous shadow play maker and performer Teng Deqing.
The material for a shadow play must be first-grade cowhide, sheepskin or fish skin, and a prop can be produced upon executing 24 procedures including paring, grinding, washing, engraving and colouring and making around 3,000 delicate cuts, according to Teng.
The studio houses a small stage, audience, production, tea recreation, sales and warehousing areas -- the only one of its kind in Guangdong.
A number of students have taken the course of shadow play and have learned how to make and perform it.
By adapting the screenplay and making props on their own, students have staged several shadow plays including Romance of the Western Chamber, one of the most well-known classical dramas in Chinese literature, according to Dong Jia, advisor of the UIC Whole Person Education Office Art Experience Centre.
媒体链接：http://www.zhuhaidaily.com.cn/text.php?ud_key=7913&ud_date=2012-02-26
