An exhibition featuring more than 100 puppets from around the world opened in Yunlin County on Tuesday last week.
“The World On Your Hand: An Exhibition of International Hand Puppetry” is to run at the Yunlin Palm Puppets Museum until March 12 next year.
One of the puppets at the exhibition is a German creation called Kasper, which is similar to the UK’s Mr Punch and is a popular comic character in German string puppet and glove puppet theaters, the museum said.
Photo: CNA
Kasper’s role has changed, said the Taiwan Potehi Institute, an organizer of the event.
Although it was originally known for its violent behavior and rude remarks, the puppet underwent a makeover in the 20th century and is now known as an educator and often used to teach young children how to behave, said the institute, which is overseen by the Yunlin Culture and Tourism Department.
The exhibition also features puppets from Mexico.
The history of Mexican puppetry dates to the pre-Columbian era, the institute said, adding that indigenous puppet culture later mixed with what European colonizers brought with them.
The Mexican puppets at the exhibition were made by Lola Cueto, one of the most influential theater puppet designers of the 20th century, it said.
She was one of the first female students at the Academy of San Carlos, the first major arts academy in the Americas, and among a few professional female artists in Mexico in the early 20th century, it added.
Dmitri Carter, executive director of the Northwest Puppet Center in Seattle who co-organized the exhibition, said that puppets can be traced back to early human civilization and are a common art form around the world.
He is grateful for the opportunity to showcase the puppets on display and discuss puppetry as an art form, said Carter, an educator and a puppet collector.
Hopefully, visitors to the exhibition would gain a deeper understanding of the cultural legacy of puppetry, he said.
Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) told the opening ceremony that the institute was established in March last year to promote the traditional art form in Yunlin, considered the birthplace of Taiwanese puppetry.
The institute is the first of its kind dedicated to traditional Taiwanese glove puppetry and aims to develop international connections as showcased by the exhibition, Chang said.
Hopefully, the exhibition would inspire local puppet artists and performers, she said.
The institute’s headquarters in the Taiwan Potehi Cultural District in Huwei Township (虎尾) is still under construction and is scheduled to open by the end of next year.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
NO RELIGIOUS VISIT: The interior minister said visas were not issued for 218 applicants for a tour of Taiwan organized by a temple due to their own non-response Chinese who had sought to enter Taiwan for a religious event were not granted visas because they were not “religious personnel” and planned to visit places not listed on their group tour’s itinerary, then never supplied supplemental information upon request, the Ministry of the Interior and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Visas were not issued for 218 of the 239 applicants, as they did not provide additional information or explanations as requested, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told a committee at the legislature in Taipei. Multiple groups, including the Taiwan Matsu Fellowship, had signed a petition that sought
A military procurement announcement released on Friday shows the purchase of “air/surface” weapons bound for Taitung, likely for the newly purchased Block 70 F-16V jets still awaiting delivery. The announcement shows a NT$17.22 billion (US$548.91 million) purchase agreement signed on Nov. 13 for “aircraft air/surface weapons,” to be delivered to the air force's Seventh Tactical Flight Wing stationed at the Taitung Air Force Base. The sale is scheduled to take place over nine years, with delivery completed by Nov. 30, 2032. Considering the recipient, analysts believe they are likely air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles for the military’s 66 upgraded Block 70 F-16V jets awaiting
RSS