Chinese Shadow PlayⅢ

The minister copied the concubine's picture onto a piece of leather and after coloring and cutting a lifelike silhouette was made. After these preparations, he invited Emperor Wu to sit far away from the screen. In this performance, Emperor Wu saw his concubine's silhouette came up slowly and gracefully, knelt down respectfully and remained there. This made Emperor Wu excited. And it was taken as the origin of shadow play.

With the pace of the times, shadow play gradually developed and became quite popular during the Song Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty, this art had become mature and formed 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. For its unique characters in the art field, shadow play was improved. Today, puppets made of leather and moved on sticks are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths.