74
HELGA WERLE
The Ch'aochow Puppets in Hong Kong
Being interested in all forms of puppet-theatre, I had heard of the existence of horizontally-moved Ch'aochow stick-puppets in Hong Kong, but it took a long time to have the opportunity to actually see them performed. In the spring of 1973, the leader of the Cantonese rod-puppet troupe, Mak Shiu-tongA, invited me to watch a show near his home, at Block 9 of the Tsz Wan Shan Resettlement Estate. The Ch'aochow people of the estate celebrated the birthday of their patron saint Po-yeh-tan1 on the 27th, 28th and 29th day of the first month.* On a limited rectangular area of about 1,500 square feet there was a bamboo-shed on stilts serving as a puppet-theatre on one end (Plate I), another serving as a make-shift temple opposite to it (Plate II), with an altar on one side and an enormous paper dragon-robe on the other (Plate III).
The robe complete with boots, belt and lots of neatly folded paper money was to be burned at the end of the celebration, in order to bestow insignia of rank upon the saint in acknowledgement of his merits. The decoration of the robe varies according to the saint to whom it is dedicated. But it is noteworthy that besides the elaborate dragon in relief, pairs of phoenixes and young hornless dragons and the Eight Immortals, three pavilions with eight paper-figures are added. These figures strongly resemble the puppets which I saw later and their heads are also made of plaster. In Ch'aochow the tradition of puppetry and ceremonial figures are very closely related.
The stilts of the stage were four feet high, with a floor area of 10' x 10' (Plate I), where on the same level the musicians and the puppeteers sit and on which the puppets move (Plate IV). The puppet-stage was very small, with four chairs and a table, all with embroidered covers. The stage is created by five flaps of richly embroidered curtains called chu lien4; the middle one being short to enable the back-stage musicians to follow the performance closely. The two long side-flaps cover a puppeteer each. The decoration of the curtains complement each other to form a cosmical unity: the square middle part shows the lion with four peonies for each direction, representing the earth, the Yin. The Yang is expressed in the dragon design of the other four flaps.
Behind the stage stands a small chest with three drawers—one for puppet-heads, one for headgear and one for arms or pennants
* Lunar calendar.