How the Seden Foundation and the Siwanran Puppetry Troupe Met
If one mentions Lin Jinlian, most people in Taiwan will think of “the master of exorcism” and "master of the Zhong Kui Dance". The Zhong Kui Dance was originally a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits and pray for good fortune. Lin Jinlian is the first national treasure-level puppet master to perform this ceremony through puppetry. He uses hanging wires to manipulate the Zhong Kui puppet and perform the "drawing of talismans". Lin has developed a robust performance art. He is highly reputed in the international puppetry world, in the world of Daoist rituals, and in academia.
In the early times, a saying was popular in the world of traditional puppetry in Taiwan: “first, the marionettes; then, the glove-puppets”. This means that before the main glove puppet show (poo-te-hi) begins, there must first be a Zhong Kui Dance performed via marionette, an act that will first purify the stage. Performers in the early years all knew the skills required to perform the Zhong Kui Dance. Lin Jinlian’s history in the art traces back to this same origin.
Looking Back on a Career in Glove Puppetry
Lin Jinlian was born in Hsinchu into a puppet show family in 1937. His father, Lin Xiang, was the head of the Jingchunyuan puppetry troupe in Hsinchu. At the age of fourteen, Lin Jinlian started his puppetry career and worked as a "second" (assistant) to his father, putting him on the path to becoming a mastery. Before the puppet show, it is required to perform the Zhong Kui Dance, an act of expelling evil spirits, Lin Jinlian had watched his father do the Zhong Kui Dance since he was a child. When he was 18 years old, Li Tianlu’s I Wan Jan Puppet Theater came to Hsinchu for a performance. Lin Jinlian went to watch performances every day. One afternoon, the assistant suddenly ran away. This made the patron who had invited a performance anxious. Pacing back and forth in front of the stage, the patron suddenly spotted Lin Jinlian sitting in the distance. Knowing that he was the son of the head of the Jingchunyuan troupe, the patron hurried over to ask if Lin Jinlian could come back stage and save the day.
Owning to this unexpected opportunity, Li Tianlu saw this Hsinchu teenager’s puppet manipulation skills. Li praised Lin Jinlian, “Your puppet manipulation gestures are very beautiful!” He then asked Lin with a smile, “Would you like to come to Taipei to study?” After watching the puppet performance for several days, Lin thought that, for one thing, this Taipei puppetry troupe's performance techniques were unique; for another, Lin had a desire to visit Taipei and see the world. So he went to Taipei to learn performance with Li Tianlu.
Lin Jinlian became Li Tianlu's apprentice at the age of 18. He started out in the troupe with miscellaneous tasks, and spent a lot of time learning the techniques of puppets manipulations. Once he did his service in the army, Lin returned to Hsinchu to take gigs doing performances all around. Finally, at the age of 27, he joined Jinyushe (the Brocaded Jade Society) in Xiluo, Yunlin. He was marked for promotion by Zhan Baoyu, the lead female puppet master in the troupe; this was Lin Jinlian's first chance to become a lead puppet Master himself. In the world of glove puppetry, for a Second to become a Master in their own right is all about their ability to do dialogue. When it comes to speaking, attention must be particularly paid to the distinctness of the 'five voices', that is, the five basic opera roles: Sheng, dan, jing, mo, and chou. A puppet master must interpret all five voices vividly, while also having the master's own style. A puppet master's charm in speaking and personal flair will be reflected in how much puppetry fans like their performance. A superb puppet master can quickly shift roles, being a scholarly, refined sheng one moment and a zany, hilarious chou the next. Such a master is the life of a puppet show.
In the early years, public performances in northern Taiwan used relatively small puppets; audiences sitting in front of the stage could not see the puppet manipulation skills on display clearly. Instead, audiences' focus was on the dialogue. Lin Jinlian recalls that the life in the early years was simple; people would bring their families to watch puppet shows for hour after hour. A puppet show was the best form of entertainment. However, you wouldn't get applause just by opening your mouth; you had to have "chemistry with the audience". Some apprentices who had just started practicing being the main performer themselves would get upset if the audience complained about their voices. That would make it difficult for them to take on the major responsibility in the future. Some apprentices’ voices were liked by the audience as soon as they opened their mouths; such apprentices could become a lead very quickly.
In 1969, when Li Tianlu established his third puppetry troupe, Siwanran, he sought help from his former disciple Lin Jinlian, who had already become a puppet master. Thus, Lin Jinlian returned to the troupe and became Siwanran’s puppet master. After five years, Lin Jinlian cooperated with the brothers in the troupe and handed their master a symbolic red envelope for the master to authorize the Siwanran puppetry troupe license. From then on, Lin Jinlian and his fellow performers began to perform independently. Unfortunately, since the 1990s, the environment for Poo-te-hi puppet performances is not nearly as good as it had been. Forced by circumstances, Lin Jinlian had to close the troupe. Afterwards, he began to use his father’s troupe name, "Jingchuntang" to concentrate on performing the Zhong Kui Dance ritual and drawing talismans. At the same time, he established a long-term cooperative relationship with Xu Wang, the second-generation head of the Xiaoxiyuan puppetry troupe. Whenever Xiaoxiyuan went abroad for exchange or did a performance in Taiwan, Xu Wang would invite Lin Jinlian to first perform the Zhong Kui Dance for purification and blessings. Since 1994, Lin Jinlian has not done Poo-te-hi puppet shows, instead focusing himself entirely on spreading and passing on the skills of the Zhong Kui Dance.
A First Meeting with the Seden Foundation
In 1985, at the inaugural ceremony of the Seden (Xitian, "West Field") Glove Puppetry Foundation, Huang Haidai, Li Tianlu, Wang Yan, Xu Wang and other national treasure-level artists performed together on a single stage. After the ceremony, the founders of Seden Foundation, three professors from National Taiwan University, including Chen Jinci, Li Hongxi, and Yang Weizhe, invited Li Tianlu and other performers to teach at National Taiwan University. Li Tianlu was busy at the time with his troupe, so he asked his apprentice Lin Jinlian and his son to teach the class. Lin Jinlian recalls that from 1988 to 1990, he taught one class a week, mainly teaching backstage skills and puppet performance techniques. After students learned the skills, they came up with their own scripts for performances.
The actual contact between Lin Jinlian and the members of Seden Foundation originated with the glove puppets that had come to Taiwan from Quanzhou.
The Tangshantou Connection
The puppet heads used in Taiwan Poo-te-hi puppet shows were originally carved by masters from Quanzhou, giving the heads their common name, "Tangshantou" ("China mountain heads"). In the 1920s, the Puppet Guild in Taipei cooperated with local crafters in Quanzhou to make performance stages and puppets for Taiwanese puppetry troupes. The sizes of Tangshantou, from largest to smallest, are classed as No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. Troupes in northern Taiwan tended to use the smallest No. 3 size, whereas troupes in central and southern Taiwan used No. 2. Due to the relatively small size of the northern puppets, they are easier to manipulate in the hand. Therefore, the northern style of puppetry is also known as “the play in your palm”. Lin Jinlian recalls that the puppets produced in Quanzhou in the early years had extremely delicate carvings, but now the craftsmen have aged. One can no longer find such exquisite and perfect carvings. In the 1980s, when Professor Chen Jinci from the Seden Foundation wanted to purchase puppets, he took a special trip to Quanzhou to find puppets in the "olden style". His collection has left precious sculptures for research into puppetry. Lin Jinlian comments that Professor Chen Jinci is very knowledgeable and far-sighted. This makes clear the efforts that the Seden Foundation has put into preserving traditional arts and crafts.
However, unfortunately, the puppets bought from Quanzhou have suffered various forms of damage, are missing hands, or are broken due to long-term use. When Li Laifu, director-general of the Seden Foundation, learned that Lin Jinlian was teaching at National Taiwan University, she asked him to inspect these puppets. In addition to his busy work with the troupe, Lin also went to the Seden Foundation to help clean, fix, and organize the Quanzhou puppets. This included repairing their arms, clean their hair buns and braids, and sewing coats and hats. During the process, Lin talked at length about his personal journey and his experiences performing, gradually becoming more familiar with the members of Seden Foundation.
In 1997, the Seden Foundation moved to a new location, and the opening ceremony was held strictly according to the traditional ritual. On March 6, the opening ceremony invited Lin Jinlian to perform a Zhong Kui Dance. The press conference the next day invited Jiang Cimei to perform a puppet show. In March 2016, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Seden Foundation, Professor Chen Jinci and his wife once again visited Lin Jinlian and invited him to perform the Zhong Kui Dance at the opening ceremony. Lin needed only to hear the name "Seden Foundation" to immediately agree. In addition to Lin Jinlian performing the Zhong Kui Dance, master Zhong Renbi from the Hsin Hsing Ku Puppet Show Troupe and his two sons (Zhong Renlin and Zhong Renliang) were also invited to perform. Qiu Wenjian, fourth-generation head of the Xiaoxiyuan troupe, performed a puppet show, and many experienced puppet masters including Chen Xihuang and Jiang Cimei also attended the event to celebrate and sing and perform. Lin Jinlian recalls what happened that day, describing it simply as "far beyond lively". Later, he got busy with working in the Jingchuntang troupe, and his exchanges with Seden Foundation decreased. When he learned that Seden Foundation was donating important cultural objects from its collection to National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University for cultural preservation and promotion, he said simply that this was a good thing, and that passing things down is very important.
Resolutely Passing Down Traditional Arts
On the topic of passing down traditional heritage, Lin Jinlian states that the tradition of glove-puppet performance must be carried on to later generations. He puts it directly: “Puppetry cannot be allowed to disappear. It must be passed down, generation after generation.” He follows on by saying that people nowadays do not understand the old rituals of glove puppetry. For puppet performances given on the open stage in public in the early years, there were a lot of inside knacks to know. For example, one had to be clear first on the surname of the patron (the one inviting the troupe, or the one holding the temple ceremony) before performing. If their surname was Huang, for example, the performance program must exclude any villain characters surnamed Huang. Compared to the gradual weakening of interpersonal relationships in today's society, the old ways of performing highlight the warmth and care people had for each other in the olden days. Additionally, the ritual steps of purifying the stage and the Banxianxi ("Embodiment of the Immortals") cannot be skipped; and the puppet master's dialogue is the very soul of a puppet show. It is a pity that nowadays troupes mostly use broadcast recordings. It is rare to see puppet masters in the backstage performing the five voices vividly. The fact that young people do not understand the Hoklo ("Taiwanese") language is also a major reason for the gradual disappearance of traditional puppet shows.
Lin said that he is advancing in years, and has already started training the ones who will take over from him. He wants to pass down his unique performing technique —the Zhong Kui Dance, performed with marionettes — to his grandson Lin Chengde and an emerging performing artist, Guo Jianfu. Lin also hopes that government and civil organizations will, like the Seden Foundation did in the past, invest their efforts and financial resources to pass down the tradition of puppetry to future generations.