Introduction (Draft 1)

An Immortal Traditional Art in Taiwan - Glove Puppetry

Ferby Chen

Draft 1

Introduction:
"Tell a thousand ancient stories from a single mouth, and create a million troops with ten fingers" (GIO, 2004), this sentence performs Taiwanese glove puppetry. The glove puppetry is a kind of traditional opera. In Taiwan, it has been lasting for a long time since the middle of 19th century. It was brought to Taiwan by immigrants who came from southern China's Fujian Province - Chuanchow and Changchou. At first - during the middle of 19th to the end of 20th century, glove puppetry followed the original style of performance from mainland China. Then the puppeteers passed on this art to Taiwanese apprentices; thus, glove puppetry was accepted and assimilated in Taiwan. Next, it was improved during the end of 20th to the beginning of 21st century. There were many changes in puppet's presentation. The music transferred into Bei guan(北管), for initial music - Nan guan(南管) - is boring, slow tempo, and with accent. The Bei guan is active and adopted by Taiwanese; therefore, glove puppetry was going to mature. Then Taiwan was governed by Japanese government since the WWII. Japanese launched Kominka (皇民化) Movement in 1937-1945; thus, many things were forced to reform, including puppetry in this period. After WWII, 228 Incident broke out in 1947. Puppetry was prohibited by Taiwanese government. Through experiencing many reformations and challenges, Taiwanese puppetry changes from fetter to grow up. However, the products of science and technology are more and more popular and getting attention in this modern society of Taiwan. The cultural product cannot be ignored. Although glove puppetry has owned its status, it should be still preserved in the future. As a result, puppetry's continuation needs many people's efforts. Gradually, puppeteers create new style for puppetry. For example, they improve the music, scene, and puppets' costumes to make it animated and various. Moreover, our government realizes that conserve this traditional art is important. They start to hold many activities to promote in order to treasure this national cultural valuable. Additionally, I plan to pick a questionnaire study to do my research. I will choose respondents who are in different ages to take part in my survey, for they will have varied point of view about glove puppetry in Taiwan. Also, my questionnaire will be carried out in different places where are in the cities and country. I think glove puppetry in Taiwan will keep going for the next ten years because of all puppeteers' insistence, government's promotion, and new changes in puppetry. It will be hard to delete in many Taiwanese's mind forever.