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 Fan Pen Chen discusses her search and discovery of a Chinese Shadow puppet troupe and tells of their great effort to revive the once thriving genre of traditional Chinese Shadow theatre. This peasant troupe, from the remote village of Bidu, performed a play from its collection, which was translated entirely to English. Throughout the article, Chen focuses on the search for examples, performers, and performances of dying art as well as, the traditional family troupe of Bidu, the flexibility of Shadow play scripts, and the Warrior Queen, Hu Yunzhuang, in // The Temple of Guanyin //.  According to Fan Pen Chen, by 1949 only one government funded shadow theatre troupe had survived in China. Throughout the next forty years, the traditional Chinese shadow theatre pushed for a revival, but never reached the level of success it once enjoyed in the 1920’s. At one point, tourist shops even resorted to selling off the gorgeous and one-of-a-kind puppet figures at a shocking rate. These figures represent an essential link to the timeless tradition of this highly endangered art form. In 1995, Fan Pen Chen could find only three troupes that held performances throughout the vastness of China, with Beijing Piying Jutuan (Beijing Shadow Theatre Troupe) displaying more modern performances than the other two troupes. The Beijing Piying Jutuan uses large cartoon-like figures and the performances were usually only 10 minutes total. The Beijing Troupe would also use pre-recorded music instead of the standard live music played by musicians. Fan Pen Chen and her daughter saw the Beijing Piying Jutuan perform at the Minsu Guan, a permanent stage where the troupe performs nearly every day. Sadly, the performances seem to draw little interest from the general public in China. Other than the children of the performers, Chen and her daughter were the only people attending both times Chen and her daughter saw performances at the Minsu Guan. Such poor attendance led to the end of performances there by 1997. The unfortunate closing of the Minsu Guan halted performances of the Beijing Troupe and Chen was forced to continue her search for a Chinese Shadow Troupe.  Fan Pen Chen concluded her search when she found a peasant traveling troupe in the remote village of Bidu. Many genres of traditional Chinese theatre require performers to be from a family of theatre performers. The director of the troupe, Wu Haitang, is a sixth generation shadow puppet performer. Wu’s son is also a performer, to assure this fading art form is carried on for another generation. Most of the troupe’s members are just requested artists, who are often shared with other theatre troupes. By Chen’s request, the Bidu troupe performed a traditional Chinese shadow play called // The Temple of Guanyin // and allowed her to record the performance for a video with English subtitles. The stage was rectangular with a translucent gauze screen framed by dull turquoise curtains and was set up in the courtyard of the home of the troupe’s director. The Bidu troupe did the best with what they had. Wu Haitang was the proud inheritor of the troupe’s only trunk of puppet figures and props. Though aged and worn, this treasure trove of puppet figures still bore signs of Shaanxi tradition. The Bidu troupe’s backyard performances are a touching and inspiring attempt to keep shadow theatre from dying out completely.  Fan Pen Chen discovers a problem when she tries to translate the video of the play into English subtitles. Liang Quanming, the master puppeteer, wrote the play’s script from memory and agreed to loan it to Chen. Chen discovered that the script was different than the play. Quanming explained that a play’s dialogue is often elaborated or changed for effect. The flexibility of the script allows a performer to display creative variations of the play, unlike Kunque and Peking Opera, which do not allow variations of the script. Chen continued to research variations of // The Temple of Guanyin // script to find discrepancies with the Warrior Queen. The plot was the same in most of the scripts, but she did find different names for many of the Warrior Queens in the scripts. Chen could not get a definite answer about when this play was last performed, but some believe it may have been as long as 30 years ago. Sadly, // The Temple of Guanyin // might never be funded again because of its spiritual nature. However, as tourism to China continues to increase and the Chinese people generally grow more familiar with shadow puppet theatre; there remains the hope that governmental funding could help save this increasingly rare and precious art form.
 * // The Temple of Guanyin // **** : A Chinese Shadow Play.  ** By: Fan Pen Chen. __Asian Theatre Journal.__ Spring, 1999. 16.1. pp. 60-106