In a previous article, I mentioned about "electricity", and when I was a child, I didn't know what "electricity" was or what electricity did. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoBut I always feel that the years when there was no electricity were very beautiful, and among so many good memories, there is an activity called "shadow puppetry".

Many people must have heard of shadow puppetry, a folk art form, but not many people have actually seen it. For rural areas, there are too few entertainment activities in a year, there is no KTV, and there is no square, and everyone basically closes their doors at night. Even drinking this kind of entertainment is not drunk at night on days when there are no light bulbs, because the light is too dim to be seen at all; there is a custom of "worshiping the gods" in the village every year, that is, the gods in the temple are carried to the village in a sedan chair and sing to the gods, which is equivalent to a kind of reward for the gods. Whether there are immortals in this world or not, we have no way of knowing.

Before I was eight years old, the main activity of "god-worship" in the village was shadow puppetry. Naturally, this shadow puppet show can't be sung indiscriminately, and besides, there is no household belongings for singing shadow puppets in the village. Every year, I invite a group specializing in shadow puppetry to come to the village, and I remember that there is an old man in that team, and there are a few younger middle-aged people. They are father and son, have been singing shadow puppets for decades, and are experts in shadow puppetry. But their father and son still couldn't set up a troupe, and the other helpers were served by the people in the village.

The first time we watched the shadow puppet show, I was very curious, and we sat under the shadow puppet stage with a small stool at home. When the father and son came out after eating, we felt like we were about to start singing, and the men, women and children of the village gathered together, chatting about family life and waiting.

The father and son were discussing the jokes to be sung behind the bright white cloth, nothing more than some division of labor, lines and the like. After sufficient preparation by the father and son, the gongs and drums began to be beaten behind the white cloth. A group of us children stared at the white cloth with bulging eyes, and the old man shouted a line in a hoarse voice, and a table was placed on the white cloth. At this time, the instruments cooperate with each other to create a very beautiful melody.

The shadow puppet play is sing, sometimes playing, sometimes singing, and sometimes it is a real scene in life. I entered the play very quickly, and as soon as the old man shouted out a few lines, I had already entered the plot, staring at the little ones running around on the white cloth. When a little donkey ran out, the audience under the stage began to laugh, the children all pointed to the cute little donkey and laughed, the old man suddenly caught everyone's laughter, the more he sang, the more energetic he became, and said some witty words in our dialect, and the laughter continued.

When the play reached the back stage, I started to feel a little sleepy. I quietly came to the side of the stage and saw a group of people working there. Daddy sat on the edge with a gong in his hand. As soon as I passed, he smiled at me and gave me a "bang" that startled me. A gray-haired old man moved around on the white cloth with some shadow puppets in his hands, and kept saying lines on his lips. There was a kerosene lamp emitting black smoke above his head, which illuminated the whole theater very brightly. Behind him sat his sons and the village helpers, each with a musical instrument, pulling the erhu around. Only Daddy was there smiling at me with a funny smile, and I whispered to Daddy, "You're going to beat Daddy too!" Daddy smiled and shouted at me, "You too!"

"Ahh

There was a burst of laughter from behind the white cloth, and I didn't know what was going on. I hurriedly ran to the back to find out the details, and it turned out that the old man's teeth had fallen out, due to excessive force. This news reached the audience, and many viewers ran to the sides to look at the old man's teeth. The old man shouted to the audience on both sides: "Keep watching the play!"

This kind of shadow puppet show is sung for three days, and on the third night, the old man can no longer sing, so his son continues to sing, his son is obviously not as funny as the old man, and rarely hears laughter from the audience. This son sometimes forgets words, and the old man lies behind and tells him the lines, and as soon as he finishes the lines, he closes his eyes and falls asleep.

The last paragraph seems to be sung by many people, but I saw the big dad and they began to sing together, and we children also like to join in the fun, standing on the side of the stage and shouting with the melody of the adults. When this part was finished, the old man was about to take his son to the next stop, and we were also overwhelmed by the shadow puppet show, and we slept until noon the next day.

Many tourist attractions in the northwest have sold shadow puppets, which are finely made and can be used for collection. Once I was going to buy one to play with, but when I thought about it, this kind of thing is useless to collect, it will not bring me happiness in the slightest, only those little people start jumping on the white cloth, sound and color, that is interesting!