The predecessor of movie for me would be Shadow Theater. Shadow Theater uses two-dimensional stick controlled puppets which are projected onto a translucent backlit screen. I managed to get Theater Tickets for a special Shadow Theater touring in our city from China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China. Most of my friends never heard of Shadow Theater, but it flourished in India, Egypt, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Turkey, Europe and of course China. I remember reading the all across Europe and Asia, audiences marveled as oil lamps flickered revealing heroes, lovers, gods, monsters and demons always attacking the innocent. I’ve seen only photographs of Shadow Theater, but now I and a few of my friends will actually get to experience the real thing.
Shadow Theater was widespread at one time, but it origins are still debated about today. Some agree that the Shadow Theater originated in Asia, but there really is no documentation or archaeological proof to back that statement up. One has to go all the way back to the Song Dynasty to find some evidence that China developed the art form, and there is a cryptic passage from an earlier history book saying that Shadow theater could go back as for as the Han Dynasty. The story goes that a magician visited Emperor Han and made his beloved dead concubine appear on a curtain. I’m not sure that that would constitute Shadow Theater per se. But, it’s the closest I’ve found through all my research on the subject.
I’ve found that Shadow Theatre has a lot in common with Chinese drama theater as a whole. Shadow Theater, just like Chinese theater performs religious, ritualistic and the every day life of the community. Both have similarities like depicting gods of Wealth, Longevity, Good Fortune and images of hell and engaging in the punishment of wrong-doers. Chinese theater would create a world that would mirror the earthly world of imperial China and Shadow Theater seemed to have played a role integrating local cultures in their relationships to gods and to mortals. Well, I could go on comparing, but I think I’ve already bored my friends with trying to convince them where I believe the origins of Shadow Theater started, so I won’t bore you. Just one more word though, if you get a chance, go see a Shadow Theater. You won’t be disappointed.
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