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HELGA WERLE
dissolved in 1964 when because of lack of business the old leader got so desperate that he threw his puppets literally into a rubbish-bin. The third group Tung-i still exists under the leadership of Wu Mu-sen and Ch'en Yung-ming. Their puppets are older and much larger than those of the Hsin-shun-hsiang troupe, and are very seldom used now.
When Wang Chiao-tsou died his eldest son Hsi-ch'in continued the Hsin-shun-hsiang Troupe. He usually plays the Yeh-hu, for which he is very renowned, in the opera-orchestras. This is a two-stringed violin of which the sound box is made of a coconut shell. Five of the seven brothers and sisters Hsi-ch'in, Hsi-tang, Hsi-yü, Hsi-ch'ing and Hsi-hsien are all versatile musicians or singers, joining in the puppet or opera performances. There are also six artists of the older generation with 30-40 years' experience performing with them. They are Li Chen-chiang, Huang Shun-ch'i, Ma Chen-huan, Chang Chung-liang, Li Han-t'an and Chiu Hsüeh-ching.
During a typhoon in 1960 Hsi-ch'in's squatter hut was flooded and most of his puppets were destroyed. He travelled to Ch'aochow to replace them, but he could not find any old ones. Fortunately, he found an old-puppet-maker who made a new set which he took to Hong Kong, and it is used now by his troupe and also by the Tung-i Troupe.
Today, there are about sixty puppet-bodies and eighty puppet-heads, belonging to these two troupes, the Hsin-shun-hsiang and the Tung-i. They give no more than seven performances a year between them. They are still called by Ch'aochow associations to perform at the festival of the T'ien-kung Chi on the 5th day of the first month, the festival of Po-kung Fu-te Ta-yeh on the 29th day of the third month and to the ceremony of Hsieh-shen (thanking the gods) in the 12th month. Although the name of either of the groups invited to perform appears on top of the curtain, the puppets, puppeteers, musical instruments and musicians are mostly the same. The fee is handed to the leader of the troupe who, together with the leader of the orchestra, keeps a larger share. The rest is distributed equally among all the other performers, puppeteers and musicians.