Xingguo Marionettes (the third batch of provincial level) Xingguo Marionettes are a traditional folk opera with a long history in Juncun, Xingguo. Puppet shows are performed in major civil and folk festivals such as birthday celebrations, funerals, temple fairs, New Year celebrations, and Lantern Festival. In temple fairs, people usually worship the Bodhisattva first and then beat the gong. Then, the five officials and the Eight Immortals come out to make a scene, and then the host chooses the original puppet show and starts the performance. Xingguo "marionettes" have a long history. As for its origin, it is said to be related to the fact that Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, was trapped in Pingcheng. At that time, Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, was trapped in Pingcheng. His military advisor Chen Ping made a plan to make the appearance of a beauty with wood and perform in the city, so that Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, was able to escape. After Liu Bang ascended the throne, he was grateful for the merits of the "puppet beauties" to the country, and gave each "puppet" the title of imperial concubine, noble lady, etc., and treasured these puppets in the imperial treasury as national treasures. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the Yuefu imitated puppets and performed them in the palace. They were also used as welcoming parties and rituals for worshipping gods and exorcising evil spirits, and then spread among the people. Therefore, there is a saying among the people: "Master Chen Ping made puppets, and the Han Dynasty's will protected the people of the world." The themes of Xingguo's "marionette puppets" are wide-ranging and rich in content. The scripts of "puppet shows" include single scripts, linked scripts, and excerpts. Among the existing plays, some are adapted from folk storytelling books; some are adapted from historical novels, epics, and folk legends; and some are derived from Yuan opera and Ming and Qing dramas. The scripts are highly literary and the plots are fascinating. The language is humorous and the lyrics are beautiful and vivid. Xingguo's "marionette puppets" have complete images, exquisite production, delicate pastels, subtle charm, and lifelike, which can be called folk craft treasures. The puppet head has a broad forehead, a plump jaw, and slender eyebrows and eyes. Especially the head shape of the female role, the nose is round, the lips are small, gentle and beautiful, and charming. The facial makeup of Xingguo's "marionette puppets" is quite ingenious in design. For example, Wenjiao and Danjiao mostly use flat eyebrows, with exquisite composition and mature lines, giving people a soft and elegant feeling. Wujiao mostly has "vertical eyebrows", forming an inverted eight-shaped shape, with simple lines and vigorous strokes, giving people a sense of heroic and decisiveness. The thread work of Xingguo's "marionette puppets" is extremely complicated and wonderful. Depending on the role, the number of strings for the puppets ranges from five to twelve, and even more than twenty. Through the skillful use of lifting, plucking, hooking, picking, twisting, swinging, flashing, and shaking by the string artists, the puppets are given a vivid life. Not only can they imitate the simple movements of real people, but they can even perform various stunts such as taking off hats, taking off clothes, moving chairs, swinging poles, and flashing official wings in singles and doubles, which are dazzling and amazing. Reasonable line layout, rigorous line regulation procedures and exquisite manipulation skills have formed the artistic characteristics of Xingguo's "marionette puppets", which are delicate and realistic in performance and vivid in movements. Xingguo's "marionette puppets" have unique tunes, elegant melodies and deep emotions. Over the long history, after continuous and careful carving by artists, Xingguo puppets use Qi tune as the basic tune, integrate the local folk popular music singing, and gradually form an "exciting and unrestrained" artistic style. It is good at expressing the generous and tragic emotions of the characters in the play, and it is easy to express the kind and generous temperament of the working people of Xingguo. After several generations of reforms by artists in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it was mixed with sad and sorrowful elements, making it more mournful and beautiful. Its singing is divided into two categories: original tune and random tune. Original tune has strong narrative nature. Whether singing or speaking, it is performed in the interval of music, and only Zhengzi is used to beat the festival, which sounds very clear and loud. It is good at expressing delicate and lingering, weeping and complaining, and sad and angry emotions, and is mostly used for Xiaosheng and Xiaodan. Luantan tune is strong and powerful, used for Sheng and Jing roles, and suitable for expressing the intense and turbulent complex emotions of the characters. The accompaniment instruments are mainly suona and erhu, accompanied by percussion instruments such as gongs, drums, and cymbals. The voice is high-pitched and changeable. The narration is mainly in "Jiangnan Mandarin", commonly known as "puppet tune", sometimes mixed with Xingguo local dialect, and occasionally with chorus, and the whole song has tunes but no words. Most of the tunes use the names of Song and Yuan tunes, such as "Ganzhou Song" and "Lulujin". However, with the development of the times, the enrichment of people's cultural life and the changes in aesthetic tastes, coupled with the impact of modern media such as film and television and the Internet, fewer and fewer people watch "marionette" plays, and the audience is shrinking. In the past ten years, Xingguo marionettes have even reached the point where they are unsustainable. There are fewer and fewer performances, let alone people who will learn this craft. Most of the existing marionette artists are in their seventies, and the production skills and performance techniques of some puppets have been basically annihilated. The "Marionette" is facing the situation of no successors and is on the verge of extinction.