Puppet master sticks to his style

Wang's parents, now retired, used to work with Xiaoyi Shadow Puppetry and Puppet Troupe — his mother was a puppeteer and his father was an instrumentalist.

Imperceptibly influenced by his parents, Wang followed in their footsteps and, when he was 17, he went to Xi'an, Shaanxi province, to learn puppet-making from a master craftsman. After spending seven years there, he returned to hometown to work with the same troupe that his parents once did.

The troupe performs regularly at scenic areas and schools, and the local government has recently paid them to tour rural areas to entertain villagers.

It takes 40 to 50 days to make a stick puppet. The average height of a puppet is 75 centimeters to 1 meter, and it has different costumes to fit various plays and plots.