Puppets on the Small Screen

This article was written by Pat Gao and published by the Taiwan Review on April 1, 2006. It features glove puppetry, which was originally performed at temples and other gatherings such as traditional markets. Today, it has found new life on television and is in turn bringing in plenty of profits for the TV stations.

In the words of a director: "A puppet never stands firmly on the ground. We have to alleviate its unsteadiness with the movement of the camera." This article introduces Taiwan's Pili International Multimedia Co., whose televised puppet show won a prestigious Golden Bell Award in 2005. The company has managed to turn the somewhat shaky wooden figures into awe-inspiring masters of martial arts who battle in a timeless, mythical world of heroes and monsters. Other characters include animals, vampires and even aliens.

In a recent survey, glove puppetry was voted as the most representative image of Taiwan. With Pili International's help, the traditional folk art has transformed itself into some of today's most influential programs on Taiwanese television. It has proved that traditional art can make for good modern entertainment.

Some scholars argue hat televised glove-puppet shows are in fact a reincarnation of the enchanted world of local temples, where different forms of puppet shows have been staged for two centuries. The popular entertainment was adapted for television as early as the 1970s, when Huang Chun-hsiung staged performances that influenced an entire generation. Huang and his family created Su Lam-bun, one of the most memorable characters in Taiwan's television history and now a popular icon. Politicians in particular love to liken themselves to this chivalrous hero as they vow to serve the people during election campaigns.

Meanwhile, distinguished glove-puppet master Huang Hai-tai passed on the traditional folk art to his sons, who today manage the aforementioned Pili International. The company owns a cable TV station on which the televised glove-puppet shows are broadcast. The also write all the scripts and preserve the tradition of having a single versatile actor doing the voices of all the characters in the shows. A signature voice has to be invented for each of the male and female protagonists, supporting roles and jesters.

Pili International retains many characteristics of the folk art in its productions. Meanwhile, it also adds dazzling new flourishes to make use of the possibilities of television. Special effects and dramatic music scores are used to heighten the drama in the televised glove-puppet shows. Plots have been expanded to express more complicated ideas.

Indeed, at a 2005 conference on Taiwanese puppetry and the cultural industry, which was organized by the Chinese Folk Arts Foundation in Taiwan, scholars pointed out that "the modern glove puppets exist in a world that disrupts the logic of everyday reality in defiance of temporal and spatial restrictions". indeed, televised glove-puppet shows today are still telling their stories in a convention of folk literature that relies on exaggeration and make-believe. Well-designed dialogues are the essence of good stories. The language of the drama and the delivery of the dialogue are so important that the voice recording is often made first.

Taiwan's glove puppetry has evolved continuously throughout its history. The puppets themselves have grown larger and more complex than their ancestors. Some of them are elaborately dressed and rise up to a meter in height. More significantly, in order to adapt to modern television studios and to face large audiences, modern glove-puppet shows have complete scripts before filming. These shows are also stored on video and DVD so that they can be viewed repeatedly. All of these changes are in sharp contrast to traditional glove-puppet performances that involved spontaneous improvisation and no written scripts.

In the end of this article, the history of Taiwan's glove puppetry is briefly mentioned. The Japanese authorities banned puppet shows during their colonial occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945). After the Nationalist government arrived at Taiwan after the Second World War, it attempted to return Taiwan to the Chinese culture by setting Mandarin as the official language. In the 1970s, the government even moved to crack down on the use of traditional Taiwanese dialects in televised glove-puppet shows. Some of Huang Chun-hsiung's shows were Mandarin-speaking, but they proved to be unconvincing to viewers.

From 1974 to 1982, glove puppetry vanished from television. Only in the 1980s, when voices began to cry out for a return to Taiwanese traditions, did puppet productions using traditional Taiwanese dialects start up again. Today, the televised glove-puppet shows are a huge hit on television. The new twists on traditional plays have drawn a cultish following among Taiwanese teenagers. Many major characters even have their own fan clubs.