Jiang Cimei—Founder of Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company
Jiang Cimei is the founder of the Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company. She was born in Nantou in 1933. Jiang was influenced by her father, who was a musician in a performing troupe. From the age of sixteen, she became first a puppet master, and then a substitute singer. Since then, Jiang has been performing for her entire life. She co-founded the Simeilou glove-puppetry (poo-te-hi) troupe with her father and brothers, and became the leading puppet master. In the 1970s, she established first the Jin Kwei Lo and then the Xinkuaile puppet troupe. From 2007 to 2011, she led the Jin Kwei Lo Puppetry Company to tour the United States and France. As a first-generation female puppet performer in Taiwan’s traditional glove puppetry, she has been active in traditional theater for more than 70 years. In the book Survey and Research of Taiwanese Glove Puppetry Actresses, Xie Dexi from the Seden Foundation honors her with the title of The Dragon Goddess of the Sea of Plays.