Project Introduction Glove Puppet: Luc Chou
The object is a glove puppet of a famous Chinese historical figure, Guan Yu, also known as Guan Gong. When I was 6 years old, I saw the puppet at a shop in a museum, I really liked it so my dad bought it for me. The object is made of wood, plastic, cloth and paint. The way to play with it is to put your finger in its head, in order to hold it properly, meanwhile, use other fingers to control its body to make the character to become vivid.
The puppet is 25 centimeters tall and it’s body is simply covered with cloth, and it’s empty inside. Glove puppetry was founded in the 17th century in the Minnan speaking area in China. Hence, the guan yu puppet’s history is long and has a tremendous historical value. Guan Yu is a famous chinese general of Han empire, his great achievements made him a god of Taoism after his death. The puppet is one of my favorite toys when I was a little boy, and I watched a fascinating show years ago, which created my curiosity and eagerness to explore it.
Glove puppetry has a rich history, significant effects on Taiwanese culture and society. Glove puppetry was originated in the 17th century in China’s Fuzhou province. Qing dynasty rules Taiwan from the 17th to 18th century, therefore, the culture of glove puppetry was brought to Taiwan during the period. In 1895, Japan started its colonization in Taiwan, and japanese aimed to japanize Taiwanese, which bans them from speaking Chinese, which leads to the glove puppet shows to be in Japanese. Meanwhile, individuals began to treat glove puppet shows as a celebration of important life events, such as weddings. In the 1970s, due to the rise of popularity of televisions in Taiwan, glove puppet shows began to appear as tv shows. In nowadays, the shows would be raised near the temple regularly and for some special chinese holidays. However, since it’s 2020, smartphones and multimedia entertainment has taken over the traditional shows, video games, videos, movies has become popular in the modern society, and decrease the amount of participants and actors of glove puppetry. As a result, the government got worried that the traditional show would fail to pass down to the future generations. Thus, there are plenty of resources available for citizens to learn this traditional technique, in order to preserve this unique act.
My glove puppet is a historical figure, Guan Yu. He is a famous general, he followed Liu Bei for a long period of time and won dozens of wars. His presence represents bravery and loyalty. After his death, he turned into a god in Taoism and a legend that every single Chinese knows, because he is a god, his glove puppets are often involved in performances held by temples. In Taiwan, many children were held up by their grandparents, because their parents need to work. Old people are the major audience for the shows, they often bring children to the shows with them, which influences them in their earlier years and allows them to get to know the gods of Taoism and builds a greater population of the believers.