Quanzhou Marionette Theatre

Quanzhou marionette theatre, anciently called 'hanging-thread puppetry', has circulated around Quanzhou since the Tang and Song dynasties and is an outstanding example of Chinese puppet art.

Each puppet carries from a dozen to several dozen strings, manipulated with fine technique to a dedicated puppet-tune music, with its own repertoire and stage conventions.

It entered the first national ICH list in 2006; the Fujian puppetry succession-training programme built around Quanzhou puppetry was inscribed on UNESCO's Register of Good Safeguarding Practices in 2012, China's first entry on that register.

Rehearsals and public performances can be seen at Quanzhou's professional puppet troupe and its puppet theatre.