Department of Cultural Affairs

 
The Puppetry Art Center of Taipei collection has over 4,000 shadow puppetry artifacts, originating mainly from China and Indonesia. Most of the items in this exhibition were produced in the late Qing dynasty and early Republican era, and belong to Hebei province’s Luanzhou school (灤州流派) of shadow play.
The center’s puppetry collection was reorganized for this special exhibition, and the featured exhibits were specially selected by curatorial consultant Hsu Li-Ching (許莉青), to give viewers a sense of the exquisite beauty of the art of shadow puppetry.
Shadows of Lingering Longing: Shadow Puppet Special Collection tells the legend of the origins of shadow puppetry, beginning with Emperor Wu of Han’s longing for his late concubine Madam Li. Two thousand years later, with the art in decline, shadow puppetry has to put emotion at the core of performances in order to tug on the viewer’s heartstrings.
The exhibition is divided into four sections: Longing: Origins of Shadow Puppetry (思念:皮影的起源), Garden Shadow Play (園林弄影), Patterns of Shadow Play (皮影圖樣考), and The Shape of Longing (思念的形狀).
Visitors can admire the shadow puppets as they walk along the winding garden paths and reimagine the Emperor’s longing for his lost love. A series of workshops on the theme of longing will also help visitors explore their emotions through various experiences as we create a new kind of shadow play together and open up a dialogue between artistic tradition and contemporary life.
 
Exhibition information: https://www.pact.taipei/exhibitionCT.aspx?id=1179