Shaodong puppet show is a short-handled stick puppet. Performers manipulate a life pole (connected to the head) and two hand poles (connected to the hands through wide sleeves) to perform in a bamboo frame curtain of about five square meters. According to the "Shaodong County Chronicles", it was introduced to Shaodong from Le'an, Jiangxi in the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1405 AD). During its heyday, there were hundreds of puppet show artists and more than 30 puppets in Shaodong. Shaodong puppet show, represented by the "Qingwu Class", was founded in the third year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1823 AD). The fifth-generation class owner Gong Risheng (83 years old) led the class of 9 people and still performs in Shaodong County and surrounding counties and cities. The 23 stick puppets preserved by Gong Risheng are finely carved and vividly shaped. According to the appraisal of cultural relics experts in Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, they are carved in the middle of the Qing Dynasty and are classified as national second- and third-level cultural relics. The complete set of puppet show costumes and nearly 100 ancient puppet show scripts preserved are of extremely high value in the protection and research of intangible cultural heritage. The "Qingwuban" is the only amateur folk puppet troupe in Hunan Province with the longest inheritance, complete costumes, rich repertoire, the largest number of artists, and the longest performance activities. In 2008, Shaodong puppet show was identified as the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list items in Hunan Province. Shaodong County, where Shaodong puppet show spreads, is located in the hinterland of central Hunan and east of Shaoyang City. According to the "Shaodong County Chronicles", Shaodong used to belong to the East Road of Baoqing Prefecture. Due to the poor land and poor living conditions, many people made a living by singing flower drums and performing puppets. At that time, most puppet troupes were semi-professional. They worked on the farm during the busy farming season and performed in their spare time. They used puppets to pray for the people and pray for blessings. After the founding of New China, puppet art received the care and support of the government, and puppet troupes sprang up like mushrooms after the rain and flourished. After Shaodong County was established in 1952, the Shaodong Puppet Troupe was established in 1956 and participated in the first rural amateur puppet troupe performance in Hunan Province. The performance "Horse Stopping" won the Outstanding Performance Award. Subsequently, in addition to the old puppet troupes, dozens of rural puppet show amateur troupes were newly established in Yangqiao Town, Huochangping, Shetianqiao, Tuanshan, Liuze, Liangshitang, Songjiatang, Niumasi and other places in Shaodong County. This was the most prosperous period of Shaodong puppet show. Puppet show is an ancient folk performing art. Shaodong County mainly distributes rod puppets and glove puppets. Shaodong puppet show is dominated by Hunan folk traditional short-handled stick puppet show. It is a dual-performance hand-operated art that integrates multiple art categories. It has both the characteristics of drama and the art of performance and the skills of hand-operated manipulation, and has high artistic value. Shaodong's short-handled stick puppet is mainly composed of four parts: puppet head, puppet body, stick, and stick. Puppet head: It is carved from wood, with a height of about 12 cm. It is carved with eyes, mouth, nose, ears and other facial features. There are two types of facial features: fixed and movable. The fixed eyes, mouth, nose, and ears are directly carved and painted on the puppet head. The movable facial features are hollowed out inside the puppet head, and movable facial features are installed, which are controlled by mechanical wires. Puppet body: Shaodong's stick puppet is a traditional inner stick puppet, which has no body frame. The puppet body is replaced by a costume robe. The costume is wide, so the body is flat. Lifting pole: Artists also call it "pillar core" or "life pole", and the whole puppet is supported by it. The lifting pole and the puppet head of Shaodong's rod puppet are carved on the same piece of wood. The lifting pole is only 23 cm long and is connected under the neck of the puppet head. The hands of the puppet are manipulated by the inner stick. Sticks: Sticks are used to support the puppet and manipulate the puppet's hands to perform various actions. They are two small round wooden poles or bamboo sticks about 70 cm long and 0.6 cm in diameter. The sticks of Shaodong puppets are installed on the hands of the puppet from the inside of the costume, which is convenient and flexible to manipulate. The movements of the puppet's head, facial features, and neck are all manipulated by the lifting pole. In order to enrich the expressiveness of the character and turn the "dead" puppet into a "living" character, in addition to striving to conform to the artistic beauty of the plot in the modeling and makeup of the head shape, facial makeup, crown decoration, etc., it is also necessary to work hard on the manipulation of the puppet head. The main methods of manipulating a puppet head are: Nodding: The manipulator only moves his wrist, making his palm fall forward, and tilting the pole forward 20 to 30 degrees, then returning to the original position. This is considered a nod. Nodding is often used to express affirmative lines. Shaking the head: This is used when the character expresses negation or sighs, regrets, excitement, etc. The manipulator only turns his wrist and turns the puppet pole left and right about 15 to 20 degrees. The arm cannot shake. Looking up: This is used to express the character's emotions such as standing tall, ignoring others, being furious, or being arrogant. The manipulator uses the wrist as the driving force, does not shake the arm, and only tilts the palm back about 30 degrees to tilt the head upward. Shaking the head: This is often used in plots such as the character's separation from life and death, escaping from the battlefield, and being furious. The manipulator lowers the puppet's head about 45 degrees, and then rotates the head (hair) 360 degrees clockwise from right to left. When rotating the puppet's head, the entire puppet body cannot be shaken. The manipulator's arms must be straight and stable, and the puppet's head must be rotated with force by the wrist. The puppet's two hands are controlled by two 70-centimeter-long small round sticks. By manipulating the puppeteer's left hand (arm, fingers, palm, tiger's mouth), manipulating these two small sticks, the lifeless puppet hand is given inspiration, and according to the needs of the plot, the puppet's other parts are coordinated to make various characters' gestures and movements, making the puppet "alive". There are many ways to manipulate the sticks in the hands of a puppet: single-wheel stick: the operator only moves one stick during manipulation, and the other stick should be controlled as much as possible so that it does not shake, which is mainly used to manipulate the performance movements of one hand; double-wheel stick: the operator rotates two sticks at the same time, rotating the two sticks from the outside to the inside, and the puppet's hands swing forward, and rotating from the inside to the outside, the puppet's hands swing backward; push sticks: the operator pushes out the sticks in one or both hands of the puppet, so that the puppet's hands stretch out in front of the body and make various movements; swing sticks: the operator swings the sticks back and forth, so that the puppet's hands swing back and forth naturally and gently, and the swing sticks swing in an arc with the length of the puppet's arm as the radius and the shoulder blade as the center of the circle; Missing sticks: When a puppet is performing certain actions, sometimes one of its hands is high and the other is low. This requires the operator to drop the stick of the lower hand downward in the palm of the hand, so that the position of the puppet's hand is just right. When performing the next new action, the missing stick must be quickly pushed against the operator's chest, and the stick must be pushed up, and the two sticks must be held immediately to perform the next action; Carrying sticks: For some performances, the two hands of the puppet are far apart, and two sticks are needed to manipulate the performance separately to coordinate the movements. In this case, the other stick must be given to the assistant actor to drive and assist in the manipulation to complete the action; Shaking sticks: When the character is emotionally impulsive in the play, the puppet's head, body, and hands will tremble. The hands must also move in various parts according to the needs of the action, so the sticks must be shaken, and the movements of turning, pushing, and swinging must be used to cooperate. Shaodong's inner-signed stick puppets do not have fixed body and feet. When the performance requires foot movements (such as getting on a horse, kicking, showing feet, etc.), a wooden foot shape is temporarily used to match the puppet and a certain action. Artists call it "beating feet". "Beating feet" is very important. It is one of the five skills of hand, eye, body, method, and step. According to different roles and different plots, the puppet's feet are shown according to the needs of the plot. If used appropriately and with realistic coordination, it can add a lot of special interest to the puppet character. The water sleeve performance of Shaodong puppet show is not only a performance skill in traditional drama, but also a means of portraying characters and expressing dramatic plots in puppet show performances. The commonly used water sleeve performance manipulation methods of Shaodong puppet show include single-flip sleeves, double-flip sleeves, single-hung sleeves, back-hung sleeves, swinging sleeves, shaking sleeves, etc. Water sleeve skills are a very important basic performance skill in puppet performance art. Regardless of whether it is Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou, etc., water sleeve movements and performances must be used, with beautiful forms, profound connotations, and rich movements. The footwork of Shaodong puppet show is to build a small stage on the big stage of human drama to perform. Puppets are smaller than humans, and are manipulated by puppeteers under the curtain (stage frame) of the small stage. The puppets can be "alive" on the small stage and perform for the audience by manipulating the transmission of sticks and the appropriate footwork of the artists. Therefore, the footwork of puppet show performers is designed according to the proportion of small puppets to design the steps of various roles, different ages, and different personalities. Its steps are basically one-third or two-thirds smaller than the steps of human actors. Traditional footwork includes: forward step, flat step, T-step, slow step, fast step, arrow step, drag step, cloud step, old step, stilt step, sparrow step, bow and arrow step, dizzy step, drunken step, etc. There are nearly 100 full-length puppet shows, single-length plays, and excerpts in the repertoire of Shaodong puppet show. Most of them are thread-bound books printed by woodblocks in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and a small number are handwritten copies of predecessors. There are more than 60 repertoires that are often performed, mainly including the traditional "Guan Gong Opera", "Guanyin Opera", "Yue Fei Opera", "The Generals of the Yang Family", "Talking about Tang", "Conquest of the East", "Conquest of the West", "Journey to the West", "Yang Xiao Fighting the Tiger", etc. The singing of Shaodong puppetry mainly uses the local popular Kun Opera, Gao Opera, Dan Opera and other Qi Opera singing music. Its main instruments are gongs and drums, cymbals, hairpins, square boards, suona, erhu, Gaohu, etc. The costumes and robes of Shaodong puppetry are all sewn by folk artists with cotton cloth. The various patterns on the costumes and robes are carefully embroidered by hand with colorful silk threads mixed with gold and silver threads. Its scenery pieces are all folk embroidery, and the head crowns and hair accessories are all handmade by the folk. Shaodong puppetry has a long history and a wide coverage. It is deeply loved by the general public. It is a comprehensive and highly skilled folk art and a living fossil of folk drama. It retains and interprets many folk traditional customs and has profound research value in anthropology, sociology, and folklore. In 2008, the Shaodong modern puppet show "Tofu Man and Tofu Woman" participated in the first national farmers' art festival and won the "Silver Spike Award"; in the same year, Shaodong puppet show was identified as the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list projects in Hunan Province.