Fujian Puppet Theatre

Sim · Post by **Sim** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:46 pm

Hi there,

As part of a 2-week-long China festival (films, opera, photo and painting and sculpture exhibitions etc) here in Amsterdam, I went to see "Fujian Puppet Theatre".

It was magnificent! The puppets could pick up and drop things, throw objects, do juggling of spinning plates; they could express anger and sorrow and joy and impatience. It was truly remarkable.

There were about 5 sketches with dialogue - each lasting about 10 minutes - and some others with music.

One of the sketches with dialogue was about an old woman beating a Buddhist drum. It was a very informal and funny sketch where she sang and talked about her (hard) life, while remaining cheerful all the time.

This was only sketch where I understood anything at all - about 30% of what was said. I recognized phrases like: 'ca ca khun khi' (getting up early), 'puak to' (fall down) etc.

Now, this didn't surprise me, given how limited my Hokkien is, but the interesting thing is that I at least understood A FEW phrases, and the phrases I didn't understand at least SOUNDED like Hokkien to me.

The other 4 sketches were more serious topics. For example one was about Mu Lian's mother in Hell. It showed her being roughly treated, and pleading with a judge in Hell. The surprising thing (for me) was that I didn't understand a single word in any of these other sketches. In fact, the dialogue didn't even sound like Hokkien to me. At one stage, one of the puppets was apparently saying "very funny" ('normal' Hokkien: 'ho chio'), but he pronounced it (something like) "hau siau".

My question is... was this "Classical Hokkien", some "stage pronunciation of Hokkien" or something similar? Or could it have been a different dialect, also from Fujian province?

[I realise now that I should have asked the puppeteers at the end of the performance. I just didn't think of it at the time, and also there might have been communication problems as they might not have spoken much English, and I (still) can't speak any Mandarin, and my Hokkien would also have been to limited to have a serious conversation with them.]

If anybody can shed any light on this, I would be very grateful.

Thanks,
Sim.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:21 pm

What were the tones? It could mean something very different!

Sim · Post by **Sim** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:55 pm

Andrew wrote:What were the tones? It could mean something very different!

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for responding.

I'm sorry, I don't remember. Tones always seem to me to be something "added on", rather than an intrinsic part of the word (for any of the dialects I'm unfamiliar with or Mandarin, not for my native Hokkien of course), so I can't remember.

I'm pretty sure it meant "very funny" though, because for about half a minute all he (the puppet) said was: "hau siau, ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!", hau siau, ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!", hau siau, ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!", while slapping his thigh, and rolling around on the floor etc. I think he said something like "hau siau, cen hau siau" (but with that other word 'cen' I'm much more unsure about the pronunciation, so that's why I didn't include it in my original question).

Sim.

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:40 am

The web site already said they are famous group from Jinjiang ,chuanchiu.
http://www.amsterdamchinafestival.nl/in ... cert&ID=72

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:50 am

www.fjysg.net/forum/forum_2.htm the language is ming period chuanchiu language which has a lot of ir vowel than modern cuanciu.We can be sure original minnan has ir,er sound even in ciangchiu.Xiamen and ciangciu move forward and back for i and u vowel .A fomous author said ir sound even appear in 切韻 which means the standard language in China has ir vowel in 三等。

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:58 am

http://211.151.91.78/cjfdsearch/pdfdown ... TTSETQTSTQ

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:42 am

I should add it is called ka ler hi 傀儡戏，the puppet is called ka ler ang a

Sim · Post by **Sim** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:27 am

Hi Hong,

Thanks for the information. All the more motivation for me to learn to read Chinese.

I wonder if most members of the general public in Fujian can understand that language!!!

Regards,
Sim.

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:20 pm

No,first of all 6 m cuanchiu people in SEA don't know that many words are not ing but uinn/ainn. 頭前 thau cuinn,房間 pang kuinn,etc。These cuanchiu words will be using by the author plus some words like give is thoo not hoo.
short live =tue miann but the actor will use old minnan chiak miann
I will buy their VCD if possible.They have published song books in China about this recently

hong · Post by **hong** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:33 pm

No,the public in China will not understand completely what the actor say because some words/proverbs are already lost by now.
today is kinn tuann ,tommorow minn tuann,cheap is pinn gi.