2.1.Introducing shadow play workshop在线视频

The intangible cultural heritage displayed today is a product of two-dimensional culture.

It presents vivid characters active in the two-dimensional space with distinct personalities in decorative costumes.

Chinese traditional shadow play attracts our interests with its unique charm in the tiny space.

In the course of history for centuries,

Chinese shadow play,

as a daily recreation,

has depicted the joys and sorrows in the world.

The shadow puppets studio was inspired

by the professional basic course of Fine Arts Academy of South-Central University for Nationalities,

National Folk Arts.

Since 2015,

it has gradually become a special project of the national art demonstration base of South-Central University

for Nationalities through 4 years of unceasing exploration and development.

The students in the studio learn about the cultural

and historical origins of Chinese traditional shadow play by taking the excellent online courses at the provincial level,

Looking for the Elapsed Chinese Shadow and offline class for practices.

Pan Jun, a teacher of the studio,

has collected pictures from German Offenbach Shadow Puppets Museum which has the most complete collections,

and enable us to experience from the rough Shaanxi shadow play to the Luanzhou shadow play featured

with tough characters and grasp its profound artistic rule from various genres and styles.

Generally, the characters are classified into four types, namely,

Shen (male role), Dan (female role)， Jing (painted face), and Chou (clown),

and we exercise by sketching and imitating,

reinforce skills and techniques,

perceive the characteristics of artistic styles,

laying a solid foundation for the next stage.

Shadow puppet producing crafts of the studio include the role design,

draft drawing, draft copying, engraving,

coloring and binding.

Through these processes,

shadow figures will be made.

A person tells the abundant histories and directs shows involved with millions of figures.

Playing shadow plays is most enjoyable.

If to play the shadow play well,

it needs countless practices,

as well as the guidance from sophisticated masters.

Qin Ligang, a teacher and national inheritor of intangible cultural heritage,

showed us the shadow play in person as the special guidance counselor,

revealing the expression and action,

personality characteristics all vividly before us.

We were all amazed by such a marvelous scene.

After all this, now it is time to open our imagination.

The first figure is a tough and impartial character wearing curled whiskers

and a bizarre look yet full of wits and wisdom and wealthy in knowledge: Zhong Kui.

In the 15th year of the early Tang Dynasty,

the King of Ghost in Chatuo Ridge absorbed essence from folks

and sent ghosts to the mortal world to search for the essence.

Zhong Kui heard the news and captured the King of Ghosts by the track of ghosts.

It is well-known Chinese mythology,

and we have infused new ingredients into it.

Traditional ancient Chinese costumes,

exaggerated style, authentic dubbing,

powerful music all created a fantastic ghost play in a strange atmosphere.

In addition to well-known mythologies, it is also inspired by online games.

Surely, the League of Legends is familiar to everyone.

I guess you only know about the computer version but not the shadow play version.

The students in the studio remained the facial and physical features of the hero characters

and took references from the props and action performances in the games,

thus creating the representative contemporary shadow play and presenting a fresh and new image to mass audiences.

We grow up with animations, and those popular characters all have distinctive characteristics.

We emphasized the ornaments on the basis of the original style,

casting a strong decorative two-dimensional performance different from the animation on the window of the shadow play.

For example, Kongfu Panda,

Bull Demon King and Faceless Monster,

they all are made into shadow play shows with strong caricature characteristics.

During the past two years, many traditional art elements have been adopted in the works released by the studio.

For instance, the landscape painting screen in the new shadow play,

Empresses in the Palace,

and the calligraphy in the shadow play,

Tale of the White Snake which brings out the theme.

All these are the creative moves.

The students in the studio not only paid attention to the live shadow play,

but also studied the animation technology combined with the skeletal system by analyzing the shadow play performance

and the movement of characters in the shadow play via the video synthesis software - Adobe After Effects.

Last year, the animated shadow puppetry film "Lighten Your Beauty"

won the national excellence award in the National Advertising Competition for College Students,

which greatly inspired the students in the studio.

The shadow plays of the studio are not performed in the class only,

and they are performed in the square of the School of Fine Arts of Optics Valley Gallery every year.

Also, the studio showed our innovative shadow play works to middle school students in Guanshan Middle School.

Students in the studio also played shadow plays with exchange students from the United States.

In 2018, Pan Jun, a teach of the studio, participated in the Collection Exhibition of Luanzhou Shadow Puppets.

In June 2018,

we have discussed the artistic characteristics

and cultural background of traditional Chinese shadow play and shadow plays in Java,

Indonesia with a professor of shadow puppetry at the Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta, by which,

those experts from Indonesia were surprised to see the innovative shadow play of Chinese youth.

The Shadow Puppet Studio is not just a place to experience traditional culture and craftsmanship in our mind,

but also a platform for us to tell stories,

present ourselves and seek pleasures.