偶戲

How to listen

A temple puppet show is a layered sound. There is the voice or voices of the performers, who speak and sing every role, and there is the band, which marks entrances, fights and changes of scene. In glove puppetry, audiences have long judged a show on three things together: the puppeteer's hands, the music behind them and the poetry of the dialogue.

The accompaniment has never been fixed. In Taiwan, older troupes are associated with styles named after their music, including nanguan and beiguan, the brisker and more rousing of the two. From the 1950s and 1960s some troupes brought in keyboards and drum sets alongside or instead of traditional instruments, chasing bigger effects. When you hear a puppet show outdoors, listen for which of these worlds the band belongs to, and how the percussion follows the action on the little stage.

It also helps to remember who the show is for. A performance in front of a temple is first an offering to the deity, and human spectators are welcome but not required. A show can carry on with only a few people watching, or none.

A short history

Glove puppetry began in the seventeenth century in Quanzhou or Zhangzhou in Fujian, and spread through the Minnan-speaking south. Immigrants brought it to Taiwan during the Qing dynasty. There it became a fixture of temple festivals, played on makeshift stages before the temple as a token of thanks and reverence to the gods. Troupes also earned their living at weddings and funerals.

From the 1970s, urban growth and new entertainment drew audiences away from live shows, and at times temple performances played to empty squares. Budaixi moved onto television in the early 1970s, and since 1984 the Pili studio has combined puppetry with screen effects for broadcast series. The form also travelled south with migrants: in Indonesia it is known as wayang potehi.

Shadow puppetry has a separate history across China. Its performers often sing and play instruments themselves, and shows serve for entertainment as well as religious rites, weddings and funerals. UNESCO inscribed Chinese shadow puppetry on its intangible heritage list in 2011. Nanguan music, meanwhile, is credited with shaping puppet theatre in southern Fujian; see the nanguan page.

Start with

Kotone has two field recordings made in front of Taiwanese temples: Puppet show at Baoyuan Temple, Xinzhuang from 2019 and Puppet show in front of the temple, Fenqihu from 2025. Both sit well beside the collection Temple courtyards of Taiwan.

Questions

What is budaixi?

Budaixi is Chinese glove puppet theatre, which began in Fujian in the seventeenth century and is especially popular in Taiwan. The puppets have wooden heads, hands and feet on a cloth body worn over the puppeteer's hand.

Why are puppet shows performed in front of temples in Taiwan?

Temple puppet shows are offerings: they are staged as tokens of thanks and reverence for the deity, often for festivals. Human audiences are welcome, but the god is the main spectator.

What music accompanies Chinese puppet theatre?

The music follows the regional opera and folk traditions around it. In Taiwan, glove puppet troupes have used nanguan and beiguan music, and some later added keyboards and drum kits.

What is Chinese shadow puppetry?

It is theatre played with jointed leather or paper silhouettes moved by rods behind a lit cloth screen, with singing and instrumental music. UNESCO inscribed it as intangible heritage in 2011.