Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/54

42 In shadow plays, têng ying hsi 燈影戲, the figures are made of leather and the performance is generally held at night. The court-yard of a house is curtained round with white calico; within there is light, without it is dark, and the figures are manipulated so that the shadows fall on the screen for the spectators outside to view.

In the pei tan 被單 hsi or sheet play the actors screen off a small enclosure with black calico and display a small wooden puppet over the top of it. The puppets are worked by strings attached to legs, arms, tongues, etc. The showmen are trained ventriloquists, and make their puppets dance and kick about in most amusing fashion; the figures are called shên t′ung-tzŭ 神童子, because they are so smart and acrobatic, and they are probably procured in the same way as those of the Punch and Judy shows.

There are amateur theatrical companies composed of local actors or farm labourers with a gift for singing or acting, and called têng pan-tzŭ 燈班子. Many join such a troupe to have a gay time of running round the countryside; the rustics call these escapades sao têng 臊燈. Such companies only get about 5000 cash for a day's performance.

Street singing is termed pan têng 板凳 hsi (stool concert), or wan yu hui 玩友會 (friendly society), or wei ku 圍皷 (round the drum).

The peepshow, hsi hu 西湖 hsi (west lake show) is a box with glaring pictures outside, and peepholes through which those who pay may look at the pictures inside, these being brought into view in turn by means of a handle.

Performers go from door to door getting a single cash at each for making a puppet dance up and down by the motion of a fan; shan tzŭ 扇子 hsi.

Others go from house to house with a monkey, a dog and a box of paraphernalia. Money for a performance having been paid down the performer directs the monkey which opens the box, dresses itself, and rides the dog or drives it hitched to a miniature plough.

Theatricals are given in each parish in front of the Yang miao 秧苗 t′u ti or local god of sprouting grain, in order to keep insects away from the growing crops.