Origin and spread

1. Origin

A large part of the traditional Taiwanese culture originates in China, such as the lunar calendar, local gastronomy, and folk religion. Glove puppetry is no exception. Glove

puppetry is a variety of the Taiwanese traditional performing arts, which include others such as Taiwanese shadow puppetry, Taiwanese Opera, and Hakka Opera. The Taiwanese

traditional performing arts is profoundly rooted in China, with the exception of Taiwanese Opera, which emerged and matured on the island.

To examine the development of glove puppetry in Taiwan through the course of its colonial history, one cannot do so without first tracing back to the origin of the traditional art form. Glove puppetry is believed to have originated in China in the late-16^th century. China, at the time in the Ming dynasty era, was about to undergo a pivotal change in the political scene: Ming dynasty would later see its own downfall as the Manchus founded the last imperial dynasty in the history of China, Qing dynasty.

The true and exact origin of glove puppetry remains quite obscure, despite ample

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discussions and research executed by dedicated scholars who study the history of traditional puppetry in China and Taiwan. Generally speaking, it is widely accepted that a prototypical form of glove puppetry had formed around the late Ming dynasty. This prototype, found in places all over China, involved one performer carrying all the puppets and music instruments needed for the performance with a carrying pole³, which was used to support a piece of cloth to create a simple makeshift stage (Hsieh, 2009, p. 22). This provided the performer with a high level of mobility, in that the performer was able to travel lightly with everything he needed. According to Hsieh (2009), from the literary evidence he gathered, this prototypical form of glove puppetry, also known as goulizi (苟利子), kuileizi (傀儡子), or jiandanxi (肩擔 戲), literally “shoulder-carried drama,” first functioned as a type of street performance, which means it acted as a “part-time job” for the performer to earn a few coins instead of a full-time profession. This later changed as it progressed in the Fujian area, where it absorbed regional features and cultures, and became a sophisticated profession, which served different

purposes.

A disaccord remains, however, over the predecessor of this prototypical glove puppetry.

Qiu (2004), in his study of the Fujian and Taiwan puppetry, mentioned several examples from other essays how glove puppetry could be explained as a “smaller version” of rod puppetry,

3 A carrying pole is a common device used to carry goods in East Asia, consisting of a horizontally positioned pole with one basket hanging off each end. It is carried by a person through balancing the pole across his or her shoulders.

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which is a Chinese traditional performing arts where a puppet—generally larger than the ones used in glove puppetry—would be supported and upheld with a long stick. Others like Wu (2005) and Huang (2006), however, maintained that glove puppetry was derived from the Chinese marionette puppetry, or string puppets, since Quanzhou (泉州), one of the origins of glove puppetry, was most famous for marionette puppetry at the time. There were also origin stories about glove puppetry that spread and survived to this day, which reinforce the

legendary quality of the traditional art form. These stories typically describe a student during the late Ming dynasty who failed the imperial exam many times and, in his frustration, discovered or invented glove puppetry, with which he later became successful (Qiu, 2004).

Regardless of what preceded the prototypical form of glove puppetry, which typically includes a main performer, a stage, glove puppets, and music⁴, it is generally agreed among researchers that by the mid-18^th century, or mid-Qing dynasty, glove puppetry had found its home in the Fujian province and flourished in Quanzhou, Zhangzhou (漳州), and Chaozhou (潮州). Profoundly influenced by the local traditions and cultures, the purpose of the now more developed glove puppetry was commonly associated with the local folk religion, which means glove puppetry performances could be found when the local wished to reciprocate a deity’s “favor” or on religious occasions such as the birthday of a certain deity (Huang,

4 According to Qiu (2004), a traditional glove puppetry troupe which performs outdoors largely for religious purposes is typically composed of puppets and props, a stage, performers, and the background musicians.

Perhaps the most noteworthy is that while there can be two or more performers who control the puppets, only the main performer voices the narration and all of the characters, and this remains the most important traditional feature in the modern-day Taiwanese glove puppetry.

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2006). The fact that glove puppetry, alongside its original entertainment purposes, had developed to connect with the local religion formed an even tighter bond—on a deeper level as well—between the traditional art form and the region.

By this time, glove puppetry had evolved radically and had undergone a series of changes, most notably the regionalization and refinement in terms of music and dialect, marking its separation from its northern counterpart and continuing to develop and transform into the regional art form that would make the southern province a synonym for glove

puppetry.

2. Across the strait

Glove puppetry was thought to have followed the footsteps of Chinese migrants to Taiwan in the mid-18^th century, during the reign of Qianlong (乾隆) and Jiaqing (嘉慶) Emperor of Qing dynasty. As mentioned above in the previous paragraph, glove puppetry had already garnered wide popularity in the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou area at this time; As a result, it makes sense to think that the Chinese migrants brought the beloved art along with them when they moved to Taiwan.

Now, when glove puppetry reached Taiwan, it conveniently carried with it the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou regional features, which, absorbed in the art form, had led it to become the admiration of the southeast area in the Fujian province. Therefore, the glove puppetry that

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arrived in Taiwan already possessed more refined and mature characteristics compared to the prototypical form discussed in the earlier section (Huang, 2006). Transplanted to a land that would later go through drastic—dramatic even—historical, political, as well as cultural changes, glove puppetry, like many other aspects of the Taiwanese culture, eventually took on a much different appearance from its Chinese antecedent, shaped by the island’s multifaceted social structure.