June 12 of this year is China's fifth "Cultural Heritage Day". To promote the protection and inheritance awareness of intangible cultural heritage to the public and enhance the cultural cognition, NAMOC specially planned the "Shadow Puppetry - Exhibition for the Shadow Play Art Collection of NAMOC" as a holiday tribute.

Shadow play is an artistic creation with the wisdom of generations of folk artists integrating the enchasing, painting, music, drama and other arts as a whole, which flourished long time in the Chinese folk. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the Chinese shadow play had transmitted across the ocean to the islands in South Asia, Turkey, Egypt and even France, Germany and other countries. It is worthy as the cultural emissary and was called as "the precursor of the film" by a film historian. However, since the 20th century, with the prosperity of the visual arts and all modern forms of entertainment, shadow play has been declining increasingly and began to enter into museums from the folk. In recent years, NAMOC planned shadow play collection exhibitions using its rich collection of resources to show the shadow play art and culture to the mass. The exhibition also went overseas and played an important role in the "Chinese Culture Festival" in the Czech Republic again as a cultural emissary.
The exhibition focuses on the Shaanxi shadow play together with the shadow play works of Shanxi, Beijing, Tangshan, Liaoning, etc. The time of creation starts from the 17th century to the 20th century, giving priority to the works of the 19th century. They are to be presented in three sections as the "Shadow · Character" and "Shadow · Property" and "Shadow · Play". The "Shadow · Character" is for shadow play characters. Characters, like what they are in the Chinese operas are the primary element in shadow play and represent different roles, elegant, handsome, brave and funny. The Shadow · Character is divided into two parts, the head and the body. According to the script requirements, the head can be put on the body in the same type with different shapes, which realizes the settings of roles in shadow play. The "Shadow · Property" section mainly shows stage properties and backgrounds, including the emperor's audience hall, pavilions, horses, ships, sedan chairs, tables, chairs, candle holders, hangings, etc. It explains the location and age of a story, and also describes the ancient Chinese room furnishings, garden layout, and architectural features in detail. What the "Shadow · Character" and "Shadow · Property" exhibit are the forming elements detached from the story to highlight the unique shape language symbols of shadow play. In the "Shadow · Play" section, we show the traditional shadow plays mostly drawn from the Chinese classics, myths and legends, gifted scholars and beautiful ladies, heroes and so on, which are the wonderful presentation of the spiritual world of Chinese people.

The exhibition is comprised of 481 shadow play collections of 47 groups. We also exhibit the culture of shadow play troupe through the volumes, musical instruments and others to help the audience understand the history and culture of shadow play. At the same time we use the video format and invite the Chang Li Xiangdong Shadow Play Troupe of Hebei to perform during the exhibition so that the audience can taste the original form and local characteristics of the shadow play art.

In the dance of light and shade, we wish all the audience will taste the vitality of this ancient folk art that touches the soul.