Puppeteers
Yuqin Wang is an outstanding artist; her stage career started early. By the age of 19, she had already sung and acted in scores of classical Beijing operas. Beginning in 1964, she directed her artistic energy toward puppetry.
Through years of research and experimentation, she brought new excitement to puppetry by weaving into it traditional opera techniques. She has played the lead role in more than thirty puppet shows, numerous movies and television programs. She has performed throughout the world, receiving critical praise everywhere.
In 2004, with Zhengli Xu, Yuqin Wang received the National Heritage Fellowship.
|
Zhengli Xu
| | Zhengli Xu, also known as "Rocky" |
Zhengli Xu has performed as a Chinese rod puppeteer for over 40 years. Graduating from Beijing Puppetry Art School with a major in show production and direction, he spent many years studying under the great puppet masters of China.
Like Mrs. Wang, he has traveled to many foreign countries to perform. Drawing on his many years of experience in puppetmaking, direction, performance and stage design, Xu produced and performed a large production of ?Maiden Pearl? at The Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in Portland, Oregon in September 1999 to critical acclaim.
Mr. Xu designs and creates all the puppets, sets, staging and props, and selects the traditional Chinese music for the performances.
|
| Awards: |
- National Heritage Fellowship, with Zhengli Xu
National Endowment for the Arts
- Excellence in Performance Award
Association of Art and Culture, Beijing
- Best Artistic Expression, Children?s Favorite Award
11th International Festival of Puppetry, Yugoslavia
|
|
|
National Heritage Fellowship
| |
Yuqin Wang, born in Beijing, China, followed in her father footsteps, training at the Beijing Opera School by the age of ten. However, in 1964 the director of the Puppet Art Troupe of China saw Wang perform and asked her to join his troupe as a performer. Thus, she began her career in rod puppetry, a tradition of dramatic and acrobatic staging of folktales, legends, and opera. While in the troupe, Wang met and married Zhengli Xu, a master puppet maker who, after training in puppetry school, traveled to villages to learn from the old masters the art of puppet making.
For over 31 years Yuqin Wang performed with the Puppet Art Troupe, the first national puppetry group in China, and traveled internationally with them, performing lead roles in over 30 puppet shows, as well as in movies and television programs. Zhengli Xu performed in and directed numerous shows and was the stage director for six different puppet shows. In 1996 Xu and Wang moved to Portland, Oregon where they have taken their art form to new audiences. Collaborating with their daughter, Brenda, they have performed at the Atlanta Olympic Games and at the National Folk Festival in East Lansing, Michigan. In addition, they generously share their tradition at numerous school residencies and continue to teach in the Oregon Folklife Apprenticeship Program.
著名木偶表演艺术家许正利，王玉琴夫妇从艺木偶界已47年了。在60年代初就走遍中国向民间老艺人学习，打下了深厚的表演根底，又多次出访世界各国，参加世界木偶，皮影大会。1996 年以特殊人才移民到美国，并成立了龙艺工作室。通过和美国木偶界同行们的交流学习，从而采各家之长，发挥中国民间木偶表演的特点编排出多个精彩的木偶剧目：大型神话剧《珍珠姑娘》，经典名著《西游记之火焰山》，民间剧有《中国偶印象》《狮子舞》《生肖故事》《长袖舞》等等。这些剧目深受广大观众的喜欢。十几年来龙艺工作室的演出遍布全美各地，去过十几个州，几十个城市，参加剧院，图书馆，博物馆，学校，社区的演出，为美国朋友介绍了中国的这一古老艺术，为促进中美文化的互相了解作出贡献。美国政府也给于了充分的支持和肯定，曾多次批经费为创作新剧目。在2004年美国国家艺术基金会为许正利，王玉琴夫妇颁发了《国家传统艺术遗产奖》，这是美国对传统艺术家的成就和贡献给与的最高荣誉。
Photo, from left: Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Yuqin Wang, Zhengli Xu
|
Interview with the puppeteers
Read the interview on the National Endowment for the Arts website
|
2004 Heritage Awards Ceremony
|
2004 Heritage Awards Banquet in Library of Congress
Zhengli Xu, Yuqin Wang and Brenda Xu giving speech
|
We are Family!
This photo shows the family nature of Dragon Art Studio. Master Puppeteers Yuqin Wang (left) and Zhengli Xu (right), are shown with their daughter/apprentice, Brenda Xu, standing in middle.
Brenda adds two skilled hands to the performances wherever they are needed.
|
More Photos
|
|
