How to become a Chinese shadow puppet master
The ancient art is disappearing — but you can help save it by learning how to do it yourself
A couple of weeks ago, CBC Arts introduced you to Annie Katsura Rollins, the Montreal-based artist who is trying to save Chinese shadow puppetry from disappearing. It took years for Rollins to master the craft of making and manipulating the puppets, and those years involved many mistakes and a ton of bandages.
Now, Rollins is showing you some of the steps for you to try and create your own shadow puppets, from cutting the stubborn material to deciding just where an elbow or knee should bend. It's fascinating stuff, captured by filmmaker Ashley Duong.
Ashley Duong is a Montreal-based filmmaker and multimedia storyteller. A Time to Swim, her feature-length directorial debut, follows a former exile as he returns to his childhood village in Borneo and struggles to navigate an increasingly complex web of local and family politics. Currently, she is working on Land and Legends, an interactive web project about the connection between the landscapes and myths of the Kelabit.
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