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“What kind of artifact is this? How can it be used?” On the white screen, Sun Wukong couldn’t even use the fire extinguisher upside down, and a series of question marks popped up in his mind… In the auditorium of Xiangdong Middle School in Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, the first fire themed shadow puppet show launched by the Pingxiang Fire Rescue Brigade is currently being staged. The play mainly tells the story of Tang Monk and his four disciples who encountered a fire while taking scriptures from the West in “Journey to the West”, All teachers and students watched with great interest.
Shadow puppetry, also known as “lantern shadow play”, is an ancient traditional Chinese folk art that is loved by people. Nowadays, shadow puppetry has become a nationally protected intangible cultural heritage and has gone global.
Time flies, time flies like a shuttle. Think about the last time I watched a shadow puppetry, when I was six or seven years old. I thought it would be difficult to see shadow puppetry performances now, but to my surprise, the Pingxiang Fire Rescue Brigade, where I work, has for the first time integrated fire safety knowledge into traditional Chinese folk culture in order to expand fire safety publicity channels and innovate publicity forms. They have launched an original fire themed shadow puppetry called “Dasheng, You OUT!”, creating a new publicity model of “fire safety+folk”.
“Can we promote fire safety knowledge through shadow puppetry?” I remember one afternoon in August 2021, team leader Zou Feng shared his feelings about watching shadow puppetry at the Xiangdong Cultural Center during a fire prevention work meeting, and asked the team’s all media center personnel to visit the inheritors of Xiangdong shadow puppetry and discuss cooperation matters.
After inquiry and inquiry, it was found that Ding Yongfa, a villager from Jietou Village, Dongqiao Town, Xiangdong District, Pingxiang City, is the seventh generation descendant of Xiangdong shadow puppetry, and his son Ding Wu is the eighth generation descendant. Once, Ding Yongfa’s shadow puppetry troupe won the Silver Award of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award for their shadow play “Yang Zongbao Breaking the Formation”. In December 2017, Xiangdong shadow puppetry was selected as a representative project of the fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage in Jiangxi Province.
In order to make fire themed shadow puppetry a reality, the author and colleagues visited Ding Yongfa’s home and received a warm reception from him. After learning about our purpose, Ding Yongfa agreed without saying a word and took us to visit his shadow puppetry character production studio and shadow puppetry demonstration room. Subsequently, Ding Yongfa discussed in detail with us the content of fire themed shadow puppetry and put forward suggestions and ideas.
In the following week, we communicated and discussed with Ding Yongfa and Ding Wu through WeChat, phone, and other means, and finally proposed and confirmed the story content of “Great Sage, You Out!”. Great Sage, You Out! Combines popular characters such as Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West with intangible cultural heritage shadow puppetry, cleverly integrating fire safety knowledge into the well-known story of Journey to the West, making the promotional form more lively and down-to-earth.
After more than two months of careful preparation, dubbing, and recording, the first fire themed shadow puppetry in Pingxiang City, “Saint, You Out!”, has finally been produced. The story takes place on a summer day in 2020, when Tang Monk and his four disciples traveled to Xiangdong Town in Wuchu Tongqu. Suddenly, a flame flashed through the air, causing a fire in a local village and causing huge losses to the villagers. When Tang Monk and his four disciples passed by the village, they saw the villagers sitting on the ground crying sadly and approached to inquire about the situation. To extinguish the fire, Tang Monk ordered Princess Iron Fan’s banana fan to be used, but the banana fan not only failed to extinguish the fire, but also helped to increase the fire. At a critical moment, firefighters appeared and used fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire. They also introduced the usage and purpose of fire extinguishers to Tang Monk and his four disciples, who greatly appreciated them
“In just a few minutes, shadow puppetry integrates fire safety knowledge into the story of Journey to the West. This is an innovation and inheritance of shadow puppetry in the new era, and also a new way to promote fire safety knowledge.” Yang Bingxuan, the person in charge of the All Media Center of the detachment, said that we hope to use shadow puppetry, a flexible and diverse form that combines education and entertainment, to enable the public to receive fire safety education in a subtle and immersive way, And achieve twice the result with half the effort.
“Integrating fire safety knowledge into shadow puppetry is also a new challenge for creators.” Ding Wu looked at the pictures of the fire figures while creating the fire figures in the shadow puppetry. During the conversation, he also said, “Although I am not a firefighter and cannot participate in rescue operations, I also want to do something for the firefighting industry. I hope to help more people and spread positive energy through firefighting themed shadow puppetry.”
“I haven’t seen a shadow puppetry for many years. Today, I saw this fire themed shadow puppetry, which not only taught me fire safety knowledge, but also gave me the feeling of watching shadow puppetry as a child. Recently, Li Junlin, a 65 year old villager from Mashan Village, Mashan Town, Xiangdong District, Pingxiang City, sighed. The language used in fire themed shadow puppetry is simple and easy to understand, and the plot is humorous. He really likes this innovative way of promoting fire safety.”.
Li Junlin also told the author that when he was young, there would be shadow puppetry performances in the village and temple during the “tooth ceremony”. At that time, many households did not have a television, and as long as there was a shadow puppetry performance in the village, every household would be excited and bring their own small benches, waiting early at the performance site. “Nowadays, many young people, especially children, have no idea what shadow puppetry is. They watch their phones and TV every day. It is meaningful to use shadow puppetry to inherit traditional culture and spread fire safety knowledge.”
It is understood that in order to actively expand the channels for fire protection publicity and education, the detachment has widely released public welfare promotional short films on fire protection themed shadow puppetry through the official WeChat and Weibo platforms of “Pingxiang Fire Protection”, and carried out offline promotion. “Shadow puppetry combines education with entertainment and has unique folk characteristics.” Zou Feng said that this year, the Pingxiang Fire Rescue Brigade will rely on the city’s “Welcoming the 20th National Congress and Striving for a New Era” opera to conduct 100 touring performances in schools, rural areas, enterprises, and communities. The fire themed shadow puppetry “Saint, You Out!” will be integrated into it, allowing ordinary people to learn fire safety knowledge at their doorstep.