Fifth Issue

Indian and Indonesian influences exist among the
Shadow Theaters of Southeast Asia (Malaysia,
Cambodia and Thailand), where the types of theater
traditions, of shape and appearance of figures, seem to
have followed non – unidirectional routes and may have
different points of origin.
In China, the first evidence of
Shadow Theater dates back to the
Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 A.D.),
though, references to related events
exist prior to that time, as for instance,
a famous story from the Han Dynasty
(206 B.C. – 220 A.D.), which became
widely accepted as narrating the
origin of Chinese Shadow Theater: when the favorite concubine of the Han emperor Wu
died, a court magician, who wanted to comfort him, used shadows and candles to make
the image of the concubine appear behind a curtain. Albeit unlikely as origin of the
Chinese Shadow Theater, the story became popular in the 11 th century.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), the art of
storytelling was combined with the illustration of narratives
with pictures on paper screens or scrolls. Besides, the papercuts,
pasted on lanterns, screens and windows, with lights
illuminating them from behind, created pictures similar to those
of the Shadow Theater, and can be considered as the inspiration
for the Shadow puppets.
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