A Report on the 2014 UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette) Conference, Nanchong, Sichuan, China

A REPORT ON THE 2014 UNIMA (UNION INTERNATIONALE DE LA MARIONETTE) CONFERENCE, NANCHONG, SICHUAN, CHINA MARY E. HIRSCH Independent Scholar The First China Nanchong International Puppet Art Week (Shoujie Zhongguo Nanchong mu’ou yishu zhou 首屆中國南充國際木偶藝術周), took place in Nanchong, Sichuan, June 1–6, 2014. This large festival included at least twenty-five troupes from the various provinces in China and welcomed over twenty-three troupes from around the world, including Taiwan. A seminar series of more than twenty presentations by scholars, performing artists, and cultural representatives in morning sessions took place over three days. Lively discussion in both English and Chinese followed formal presentations. Also during the week, a set of judges reviewed live and recorded performances, and their awards determined the fate and future funding of various artists and troupes. Nanchong is home to a world-renowned large puppet theater tradition known as Chuanbei da mu’ou 川北大木偶 (Chuanbei [Northern Sichuan] Big Puppet). It is less than a four-hour drive to the northeast of Chengdu. Seven venues, including the new and very large Nanchong Theater (impressive with its grand staircase but still devoid of any landscaping), hosted the well-attended events. Buses transported participants across town to the various venues, while free outdoor performances in the town plaza showcased artists for locals and anyone walking by during the week. Sponsored by the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Culture, the City of Nanchong, and the UNIMA Asia-Pacific Commission, the International Puppet Week was organized and coordinated by a combination of arts organizations and propaganda bureaus. It follows in the footsteps of the 21st UNIMA World Puppetry Congress and Festival held in Chengdu, Sichuan, from May 27 to June 3, 2012, also a red carpet event showcased on Chinese national television. Massive coordination of close to a hundred prescreened English speaking volunteers , drivers, and handlers from universities in Sichuan cheerfully managed logistics for the mostly non-Chinese-speaking visiting guests. Effectively overcoming obstacles through rapid-fire cell phone communication and transportation, these young people were on call well into the night. Many of us were lavishly housed and fed in the five-star Tian Lai Hotel (Tianlai da jiudian 天來大酒店) on the banks of the Jialing River. The hotel’s glitzy lobby and abundant international buffet offered great locations for mixing with different performers and scholars each day. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 34. 2 (December 2015): 162–165© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2015 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2015.1096556 The cursory summations below are meant only to give an idea of the content of the more important of the talks that were related to Chinese puppetry. There are plans to publish the papers in English and Chinese.1 During the opening seminar, there was a call for greater public input and media coverage to move puppetry from its marginal position into the mainstream of entertainment . It was hoped that once puppetry’s techniques are better understood, it could be better integrated into the modern world. One topic in the seminars was the history of puppetry in China and its relationship to human theater. Du Jianhua 杜建華, of the Sichuan Provincial Theater, showed how the ancient myths of Ba 巴 and Shu 蜀, the founding cultures unique to Sichuan, are part of marionette puppetry in modern times. Ye Mingsheng 葉明生, Research Professor in Fuzhou, explained his extensive fieldwork and publications on folk religion and puppetry in southern China, emphasizing the close connection between performers and Daoist priests. Qin Xueren 秦學仁, professor at the Central Drama Institute (Zhongyang xiju xueyuan 中央戲劇學院) and editor of the puppetry journal, presented his research on how traditional marionettes are related to human opera. Jiang Yuxiang 江玉祥, Professor Emeritus of Sichuan University and former director of its museum (which has substantial holdings related to shadow theater), focused on the lore of the Thunder God in Chinese myth and how this mighty force came to have a standardized depiction in shadow theaters by the late Qing. Another common topic was the spread of Chinese puppetry abroad. Fan Pen Chen 陳李凡平, Professor at SUNY Albany, traced the reinterpretation and reception of the White Snake legend and its impact on shadow theater. She included a clip of Pauline Benton’s...