Gaozhou Puppet Show Inheritance Protection Survey And Research

Gaozhou Puppetry is originated from the Glove Puppet Show from Fujian Province. Gaozhou Puppet is characterized by its special tunes, lyrics, music accompaniments and performing skills. It widely spreads in the rural and urban areas in Gaozhou, playing an important part in entertaining public, dissemination of culture, teaching ethics, and appreciation of art. It is generating and reflecting the rich traditional Chinese culture. With the quick development of economic and society, Gaozhou Puppetry is facing a crucial fact of lacing inheritor, just like many other Immaterial Cultural Heritages. Most of the current inheritor of Gaozhou Puppetry are really old, and the number of them is decreasing rapidly. The social and the cultural influence have put the puppetry into a severe circumstance of no inheritors.Gaozhou Puppetry has its root in Gaozhou folk culture. It exists in the rural and urban areas in an immaterial but lively way, and is mostly inherited in oral way. As the core and foundation of the inheritance and sustainable development of Immaterial Cultural Heritages inheritors play a key part in the protection of the cultural heritages. Gaozhou puppetry heritors are the bearers of the traditional activities, and they play an indispensable role in the lasting development of Gaozhou puppetry. Because of some realistic reasons, current Gaozhou puppetry inheritors are also facing a grim predicament of living.I have interviewed a large number of inheritors on their current circumstances, inheriting situations, protecting strategies. I have also analyzed and explored the plight that Gaozhou puppetry is facing to propose main ideas on protecting the inheritors of Gaozhou puppetry. This article is divided into the following four parts The first part describes the historical origins, artistic characteristics and cultural functions of Gaozhou puppetry, The second part of this article summarizes the general characteristics of inheritors to help to understand the status of inheritors through comprehensive analysis of11puppetry troupes, The third part tells problems that Gaozhou puppetry inheritors are facing from the aspects of materiality, institution, spirituality; The fourth part proposes some specific solutions to protect the Gaozhou puppetry inheritors from the aspects of perfecting protection system, implementing the rescue protection, and expanding the ways of development of the inheritors.