Taipei exhibition delves into cultural significance of puppetry

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) An exhibition showcasing the diverse puppet collection of Paul Lin (林經甫) that opened Monday at the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei hopes to highlight the importance of puppets as cultural symbols.

Speaking at a news conference to mark the exhibition's launch, Lin -- a seasoned puppet collector -- said he decided to donate his entire collection of more than 11,000 puppets to the museum in 2020 so they could be an "asset" rather than just his private collection.

He said the puppets carry with them memories of his journeys around the world, including times when he had to buy some of them from collectors overseas to bring them back to Taiwan.

One exhibit typifying this is a "show platform" featuring elaborate engravings that belonged to Taiwanese glove puppet master Wang Yan (王炎), who died in 1993.

Lin snagged it in the mid-1980s by offering an antiques dealer a higher price for it than a Japanese collector who had committed to buying the piece, and then invited Wang, who had lost his eyesight by then, to his studio to see if it would jog some memories.

Upon laying his hands on the platform, Wang cried, recognizing that it was the old platform he had used to stage his glove puppet shows on the road, Lin recalled.

The platform is prominently displayed at the entrance of the exhibition room, along with 34 puppets (including glove puppets, shadow puppets, string puppets, and rod puppets) from around the world.

The exhibition showcases many of the puppets as vessels of cultures, offering insights into their roles to entertain, spread knowledge, practice religions, and even as tools for political propaganda and promoting government policies.

A display of glove puppets from Indonesia portraying the Chinese mythical characters Lei Zhen Zi (雷震子), Dragon King of the Sea (海龍王), and Yang Ren (楊任) from the Chinese literary classic Investiture of the Gods, for example, documents the rise, fall and resurgence of the art form in the Southeast Asian country.

Glove puppetry, which originated in China's Minnan area, gained popularity in Indonesia in the 18th century, but under the "Indonesianization" cultural policy under the Suharto regime from 1967 to 1998, the number of glove puppet shows decreased sharply.

Even in regions where the policy was not so strictly enforced, glove puppeteers were required to remove any political satire from their shows and dedicate 10 minutes of every show to promoting the Indonesian government's policies, according to the exhibition.

It was not until Suharto's rule ended that glove puppetry made a comeback, although the language used in the shows had largely changed from Hokkien (commonly known as Taiwanese) to Bahasa Indonesia.

The exhibition runs until Aug. 31. Admission is NT$30 (US$0.91).