Lin Jinlian-Head of the Jingchuntang Puppetry Troupe

Lin Jinlian

Head of the Jingchuntang Puppetry Troupe

Lin Jinlian is currently the leader of the Jingchuntang Puppetry Troupe. He was born in Hsinchu into a glove-puppet (poo-te-hi) show family in 1937. His father, Lin Xiang, was the head of Hsinchu's Jingchunyuan puppetry troupe. At the age of 14, he started his puppetry career and worked as a second (assistant) to a puppet master. At the age of 18, he travelled further north and became an apprentice in Li Tianlu’s I Wan Jan Puppet Theater. In 1969, he became the lead puppet performer in the Siwanran Puppetry Troupe. Afterwards, Lin Jinlian and his junior colleagues started performing puppet shows independently. After the 1990s, he devoted himself to the study of rituals such as performing the Dance of Zhong Kui and drawing talismans in the Jingchuntang troupe. In the 1980s, he had gradually built good relationships with the Seden Foundation because of puppetry. At present, he is dedicated to the family’s puppetry tradition of doing the Zhong Kui Dance with marionettes. Lin is one of the few nationally-acclaimed puppet masters who can perform the Zhong Kui Dance with marionettes.