Pan Tieli, already in his 60s, has always loved the shadow play and
has tried his best to save it from extinction. He has collected
rare materials from all over the country and has more than 1,000
shadow play puppets, dozens of books and videos along with audio
material that provides a history of China's shadow play tradition.
Since it was launched over a year ago, his website has become
increasingly popular.
At
the eastern Gulou Street in Dongcheng District, a reporter visited
Pan's home early in April. It's in the depth of a hutong (or
alley) far from the noisy part of the city. On entering the
enclosed courtyard, shadow play puppets are immediately visible on
its broken doors and give the impression of entering into China's
historic past.
Just two days ago, he says, they were in Jiangsu Province looking
for funding to keep his project going. It was not successful. They
have come back to wait for new opportunities.
Some say that Pan's crazy having such a strange hobby, while others
say it must be the money which drives him.
Entering Pan's home though there is nothing strange here except for
the collection of shadow puppets, an old refrigerator and washing
machine.
Compared to perceptions, he says, he is not rich and constantly
seeks funding for his collection. "Now we haven't enough money to
maintain our website, let alone maintaining the shadow play," he
says sadly.
Hobby from childhood
Pan Tie li, who has just retired as a chemistry teacher, has
cherished the love of the shadow play from a very young age. He
still can remember the first shadow play he saw, Wu Song Fights
the Tiger. "It's very funny. From the white screen we could see
the puppets looped and fighting. When Wu Song, the warrior, was
bitten by the hurt but still living tiger, all the children
exploded with laughter. From then on, the little shadow play cinema
was such a huge magnet for me. I was like a demon possessed: all
day I would stand watching them."
Pan still remembers all the shadow plays he saw when he was young.
"I can almost remember all of the plots from Monkey Subdues the
White Bone Demon, Gods of Honor and The Three
Brothers Fight Against Lu Bu. Sometimes they are like films
that flash around in my mind."
"Since I first learned drawing with my father, who was a very fine
art teacher, I was not satisfied with merely watching. I began to
make shadow play puppets myself. I had no leather then but used
hard paper to replace it. I could make all the shadow play puppets
like Wu song, the Monkey King, Pig Monk, Ne Zha and so on."
At
that time Pan not only learned how to make the puppets, but also
began to collect things associated with the shadow play, like the
matchbox pictures and posters. He still has seven vivid posters of
classical shadow play puppets from that period.
Not surprisingly from the very first moment he saw the shadow play,
he made a lifelong connection to it.
Collection and hardship
As
an ancient folk art, shadow plays have a history of more than 2,000
years. It has been handed down through the generations until now
because of its unique character, style, beautiful opera music,
simple stage equipment and appealing performances. It is the very
best of Chinese entertainment.
To
face the realities of a decline in interest in the shadow play, Pan
Tieli has often felt despondent. Whenever he recalls the
flourishing shadow plays from his youth, he feels regret. What has
made him worry is the shortage of people who have inherited an
interest and skill in the ancient art as the old shadow play
artists have died off. "If the precious art of the shadow play
disappears, as a folk tradition, I'm afraid that traditional
culture itself will begin to disappear." He talks of a "new long
march" way of saving the shadow play.
Actually Pan knows more than anyone that individual power is
limited, "Somebody has to do it. I'll try my best, but I need the
help of others also."
Early in the 1990s, in the summer and winter holidays, Pan went to
Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and
northeast areas of China to investigate different shadow play
genres in different areas, and recorded old shadow play artists'
lives and performances in every detail. After his retirement, with
the support of his wife, they bought video and audio recorders and
began to collect, first-hand, material on the shadow play.
The Pans have suffered a lot collecting shadow play material. Most
old shadow play artists live in remote districts, so they have had
to endure all kinds of hardship on arduous roads, sometimes even
being driven away by more secretive and conservative of the shadow
play artists. "Actually these are not the most important of
problems. The main problem is: as China is such a big country with
so many people, sometimes we don't even have a clue, but we still
look. We enquire everywhere. Sometimes, with luck, we find a group
of artists in sequence, and sometimes we can't find anyone."
Pan remembers how they once looked in the rain for several days for
an old artist named Lian Zhenhua, in the Houma area of Shanxi
Province. They found a person named Lian Zhenhua with difficultly,
but in the end he was not the right one. They went on searching
using a broken tricycle, their bones almost out of joint due to the
bumps along the way. When they got to Lian Zhenhua's home, he
wasn't in. They were tired and disappointed.
Where there is a will, there is a way and now Pan has collected
more than 1,000 shadow play puppets, dozens of books and sets of
video and audio materials, which have provided detailed material to
China's shadow play art.
The whole family helps
Pan maintains that the shadow play is in danger of extinction,
mostly because of a lack of knowledge about it from the public:
some people don't even know what a shadow play is. So the motive
for collecting material is to make people get to know it, then, to
love it.
In
June 2001, Pan retired. With his spare time he does things he
likes, and begins to think about his project. He hits on the
Internet as of the greatest advantage to him in terms of speed and
convenience as it can contain pictures as well as articles. Since
his son works in software development, he decides to make a website
on the shadow play. He says that it's been unexpectedly successful
and the website has been in operation since 2002. The website URL
is http://www.chineseshadow.com
The website has eight pages of introductions to the Chinese shadow
play, the shadow play museum, the windows of the shadow play, the
shadow play theatre, playing shadow play and the communication
center. It introduces the history and reality of the Chinese shadow
play in detail, and shows the magic of the shadow play. In the
playing shadow play web page, they introduce the shadow play's
production and performances. In the shadow play theatre, you can
enjoy the famous shadow plays, such as the folk love stories and
the Chinese traditional fable stories. Another web page, shadow
play games, is now under construction.
Pan has also given shadow play lectures to colleges and
universities. And carried on the architecture and decoration design
of shadow play puppets.
He
says to make the website better all the members of his family take
part. Pan collects and classifies the material, his son designs and
maintains the website, and his wife does some important things
also. "We always work until late at night, sometimes we don't sleep
till 3 in the morning. Since I always watch how my son does it, I
learn how to maintain the website by myself," Peng Lanzhen, Pan's
wife says.
"It's an unusual site to the normal net user. Shortly after we
began operation, there was a surge of interest in it. Our hit rate
is about 2,000 to 3,000 per month."
Meanwhile, he gets plenty of feedback. "Some friends made pertinent
suggestions; the Central Finance and Economics University invited
me to lecturer there last October, where one old gentleman remarked
that he remembered his happy childhood when he saw the shadow plays
on the website."
Innovate and renew
Pan Tieli maintains that to save folk art forms, including the
shadow play, except the innovation of the folk art itself, an
effective market operating mechanism is needed. "Folk art can't be
just folk anymore, it needs to be popular art too."
Pan Tieli still has other ideas, "Alone, the website can't save the
shadow play tradition. The most important thing is to make the
shadow play appear better and better in the audience's eyes."
Except to organize the shadow play troupe performances in Beijing
as a business, he also wants to construct a shadow play troupe to
perform in schools, factories and other institutions in order to
promote it.
Pan summarizes the ten pleasures of playing with the shadow play by
saying that it needs to be promoted as a new game concept. He wants
to turn schools into windows of popularity for the shadow play. He
not only performs in schools but also teaches students how to make
shadow play puppets and play its games. And he wants to design
presents connected to it for retail e-business, and to publish
shadow play books.
"I
just want to try doing it, but I can't guarantee its success just
yet. To solve the problems of the shadow play, the problems of
other folk arts may be solved too," he says.
Easier said than done. "The funding is the greatest problem. The
journey to collect material in these last years cost us everything
and now we have to depend on our pensions. It's difficult to
maintain the website, let alone the new items which need startup
funds," Pan said.
"However, we'll never give up; overall there are always some
friends in the same situation. We'll get together. Then it'll be
like the springtime of the Chinese shadow play," Pan says
emphatically.
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin May 7, 2003)