International puppet show opens in East China

Over the next four days, 28 puppetry groups from 11 countries and regions will perform in Quanzhou, a city famous for puppetry, in East China's Fujian province.

At the opening ceremony of the Sixth China Quanzhou International Puppet Show Saturday, puppet masters from Russia, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, India and Italy, together with Chinese puppeteers, entertained and amazed their audiences with various hand puppets, rod puppets and marionettes.

"It was a visual feast," said Rob Bloemkolk, a Dutch writer, producer and director. He and his puppeteer wife have visited many Chinese cities but the festival still offered something new. He was in awe of the "big group of Chinese performers and their puppets with changing faces," referencing a traditional Sichuan Opera performance and its rapid-fire mask changes.

Traditional Chinese puppet shows use dance, music and other art forms together, in "a more integrated way than European puppetry companies," according to Bloemkolk.