Chinese shadow puppets

Chinese shadow puppets are rather different from their Indonesian and Turkish relatives. They are very delicate items, normally made from donkey skin and decorated with cut-out designs and translucent dyes. They are usually so thin that the colours as well as the outline are displayed on the screen. Unlike both Javanese and Turkish shadow theatre there was a very wide range of Chinese characters to perform in many different plays, whether military, religious or simple folk tales.

You can find out more about Chinese shadow puppets at The China Shadow Play Institute.

On the next page you can see some examples of shadow puppets changing from puppet to shadow.