There are various stories behind people's names, and the naming
of Xu Zhuchu is related to Master Hongyi, an eminent Buddhist monk.
It was in 1938 when the master was invited to Zhangzhou of East
China's Fujian Province to teach Buddhist
doctrines.
He lived in a local temple next to the home of Xu's grandfather
and became a family friend. When he was asked to name the newborn
baby, the master thought for a moment and suggested zhu chu,
literally meaning bamboo shoot. "May the child grow up as
vigorously as the bamboo shoots, and bring the family a glorious
prospect," he said.
All his life, Xu Zhuchu has been living up to that wish by reviving
the family art of puppet carving. His efforts have won him the
national honor of the Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) inheritor.
In China's long dynamic history of puppet art, Zhangzhou's glove
puppet play enjoys great popularity in southern Fujian Province.
And the unique handicraft of making puppet heads has developed into
an independent genre.
It is thought that Xu's ancestors opened the first family
workshop of wooden puppet head carving in the late Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644). Xu's father, a veteran of both puppet and Buddhist
statue carving, brought the family tradition to a new height as his
Tianran workshop made a big name for itself in Fujian.
Xu began the strict discipline of puppet carving as a child. He
often stayed up late to practice the craft, using all his father's
timber. He focused on the work so much that he once got his hair
burnt by the candle. In his teens, he won several national prizes
and his talents stunned the art world in the 1950s.
Xu has created more than 600 puppet figures from Chinese operas and
folktales, which display the best of his family's craft. His works
appear in puppet films and have become a must for art collectors
even though the puppet play is waning in popularity.
Art critics believe that instead of simply repeating his
predecessors' works, Xu has recreated a lot based on his studies of
the characters and plots of puppet plays.
His carving of a chou (clown) figure is a good example. He
doesn't directly imitate the facial make-up of the local operas. He
works hard on the facial features to make them perfectly match the
character. Skinny faces, sharp-pointed jaws, narrow long eyes,
bristling moustache and protruding teeth: a mouse-like human face
emerges, revealing an intelligent yet cunning character.?
Xu says that behind every successful puppet head are his in-depth
observations and analysis of people from different walks of life.
He grabs their most vivid expressions and presents them on puppets'
faces.
Xu also assimilates other folk arts into his puppet carving. He
has been a Chinese opera enthusiast ever since childhood and he
also visits the story-telling studios and Buddhist temples where he
keeps record of distinctive statues.
Xu's Zhangzhou Zhuchu Puppet Art Museum is arguably the first of
its kind. Visitors can appreciate works that have toured more than
100 countries and regions, and also Xu's collection of puppet
carvings by ancient masters.
(China Daily August 7, 2007)
