Interview with Qin Ligang, National Inheritor of Yunmeng Shadow Puppetry

Qin Ligang, 74, controls the shadow puppets of Wu Song, a tiger, Sun Wukong, Pig Bajie, Ox Demon King, Princess Iron Fan and various animals and birds, singing and chanting, as well as the roar of monkeys, the roar of tigers and the joy of birds. On the shadow screen with a height of 1.3 meters and a length of 2 meters, "Wu Song fights the Tiger" and "Monkey King Borrowings the fan" are familiar old stories, but the beating of the small shadow person, with Qin Li Gang's rap, changes the infinite charm.

"I saw shadow puppets when I was a child. It's been over 40 years." Mr. Zhu went out for a walk after dinner and met Qin Ligang's team preparing to perform. He picked up the shadow puppet and looked at it for a long time, sat in the background and played a small gong with a cheerful rhythm, "Come, I will also help you heat up the field."

Teacher Zhu was originally an audience, but became a "group play". Qin Ligang is not surprised at all, and neither is his own artistic starting point.
"I was born in Yunmeng rural, the village people's entertainment is very little, as long as the shadow puppet troupe to the village to perform, lively like the New Year." After watching it, I went home, took the horse manure paper and cut it into a human figure, and played the shadow figure through the mosquito net under the oil lamp." Qin Ligang, while staring at the team preparing for the stage, talked to reporters about his "shadow play life."

Qin Ligang pointed his youngest sister, daughter and son-in-law to build the stage, "the stage is my own design, followed me to France, South Korea, Malta, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus."

With the guidance of his master, the gifted Qin Li Gang learned quickly. His singing is beautiful, humorous and hilarious, tragic and tearful, especially the "side voice" is amazing.

Qin Ligang also made bold innovations in shadow play production. Traditional cloud dream shadow play with cowhide, cowhide expensive, folk artists either a cowhide shadow for a long time, or with several layers of paper shell instead, when the light is dim, the shadow figure on the curtain blurred. By chance, Qin Li Gang discovered the wonderful use of the abandoned X-ray film: after stripping the colored film above it, he colored the shadow figure with opera oil color, and the performance effect was clear and good-looking. After one and a half years of learning, Qin Ligang's fame spread in Yunmeng.

December 6, the reporter came to Yunmeng County Chengdong street Mengze movie Theater. This is a performance venue built by Qin Ligang in 1985, and the 200-seat performance space tells the prosperity of that year. Ticket price from the beginning 15 cents, to the later 3 yuan, until 2014, Mengze Film Theater continued to perform Yunmeng shadow play for 30 years, only the annual Lunar New Year's Eve break. It is estimated that the audience has exceeded 1.34 million people, and international friends from more than 10 countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy and France have entered the Mengze Film Theater.

"There are more than 200 plays, from the Legend of the Gods to the story of the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, three hours of performance every day, and it takes five years to watch all the plays." The longest play is Burning the Sword Building, which can run for 100 days."

Since 2017, Qin Ligang has cooperated with Optics Valley No. 15 Primary School to set up school-based shadow play courses, and he has won the gold medal of the National Children's Shadow Play Competition for four times with his shadow play children.

Qin Ligang has been sticking to shadow play for more than 40 years. During the lively performance, he often thought: Shadow play has nourished me, what can I do for the old skill that has lasted for more than 2,000 years?

Qin Ligang's children can play shadow puppets, but none of them plan to take over their father's mantle. "Art needs talent", Qin Ligang agrees with his children's choice. Grandson Qin Lang gave grandpa a surprise. Qin spent his childhood in the background of shadow puppetry. "When he was two and a half years old, I found that he beat me with a good rhythm." In 2005, Qin Ligang took four-year-old Qin Lang to participate in the first China Tangshan International shadow Play Art Exhibition, a "Sun Wukong battle Bull Demon King", so that Qin Lang became famous, and won the only "best performance award" with his grandfather. Qin Ligang has high hopes for Qin Lang who graduated from university.

Qin Ligang cherishes every audience. To this day, two sets of shadow puppets are prepared for each of his performances, regardless of the length of the performance and the size of the venue, to deal with emergencies. In November this year, the fourth Jingchu Rural Cultural Tourism Festival, a family of three generations missed Qin Ligang's shadow play for some reason, the children refused to go crying, Qin Ligang to appease the children, specially for him to play a short period.

Yunmeng County has two research bases, both of which take Qin Ligang's shadow puppetry as their research project, "This land has born old skills, I hope the children in this land can feel it since childhood, and some of them can pass it on." This is Qin Ligang's greatest wish.