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| Chinese Leather Silhouette |
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Chinese leather silhouette is also called shadow play, and in some
regions"monkey play" or "paper shadow". The
leather silhouette show is an age-old popular folk art of China
which even spreads abroad and thus becomes a worldwide art. The
main prop of the shadow play is the PIYING (leather silhouette).
It demands a superb handicraft to make such a prop.
In our days, numerous foreign artists make PIYING to decorate
the display windows. The images painted on the PIYING are usually
figures coming from historical theaters or myths. Despite of its
difference in style made in divers areas in China, PIYING has
the following characteristics in common: sculpture highly precise,
simply shaped, decorative patterns exaggerated, which form together
an artistic charm. The folk artists form a jingle to describe
the skills and the process of making a PIYING: you begin with
the sculpture of the head and the cap, followed by that of the
eyebrows, the eyes and the pointed nose, you finish preparing
the clothing, the hair and the mustache, and then you form the
body by putting all together. You color the body and then your
PIYING is ready.
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