Kaohsiung Shadow Puppetry

After shadow puppetry reached Taiwan from the Chinese mainland, it took root chiefly in the south, with Kaohsiung's Dashe and Mituo districts at its core, a lineage reaching back to the Qing dynasty. Representative troupes such as Donghua have passed the art down through generations, preserving many hand-copied scripts from the Qing and Japanese eras that witness the history of shadow theatre in southern Taiwan.

Shadow puppetry carves cowhide or donkey-hide into jointed figures manipulated behind a lit white screen, accompanied by gongs, drums, strings and the performer's sung and spoken narration; its repertoire draws on historical romances, myth and folk tales, a performing art in which light, shadow and voice are equally vital.

Shadow puppetry is a major traditional performing art of Taiwan, and as its southern stronghold Kaohsiung holds outstanding value for the study of Taiwanese folk theatre, immigrant culture and the art of light and shadow through its preserved scripts, figures and manipulation techniques.