Natural and Theatrical Drama at Haining by the Sea

By YUAN PEIDE

Shadow play apprentices.	Yanguan Town in Haining City, Zhejiang Province offers the best vantage point for the Qiantang River tidal waves.	Eighty-year-old craftsman Wang Qiansong.

Haining (hai means sea, ning means peace) is a small city by the Qiantang River in Zhejiang Province. Its perennial tranquility is disrupted each September when tidal waves from the East China Sea surge dramatically into the river, a phenomenon that draws tens of thousands of spectators. Approximately 200,000 tourists come to Haining to see this tidal spectacle each year, according to the city’s Tide Bore Sightseeing Resort Management Committee.

The Tidal Bore Viewing Tradition

The tradition of witnessing the Qiantang River high tide began in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD220) and reached its height in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It was during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) that the third day after the Mid Autumn Festival in latter half of September or early October, when the billows are at their most dynamic, was officially deemed the Tide Watching Festival.

The best vantage point for high tide is Guanchang Shengdi (Tide Watching Wonderland) Park in Yanguan Town in the southwestern part of the city. The spectacle reaches its pinnacle, which lasts about 12 minutes, between 11 am and 2 pm. It starts as a white line on the horizon, and after a few seconds soars into a roaring rampart of water that towers as high as 3.5 meters. In some spots the fall of churning water that hits the embankment with a deafening crash is 8.9 meters. Despite punctilious security efforts on the part of the local government, a small number of ill advisedly adventurous spectators are swept away by the torrent every year.

Those that seek the full extent of the spectacle follow the tide by car from the Big Gap, 12 km east of Yanguan Town, to Yanguan, then westward to Yancang Town to see the waves return. Among these high tide devotees is Ding Zuguang. He has photographically recorded this phenomenon for 27 of his 61 years in Haining, and is obviously still thrilled at the memory of the largest bore he ever witnessed in the 1970s. He recalls: “From a distance it looked like a mountain that seemed to block out the sky and earth. An unimaginable sight!”

The downside of this natural wonder is that it constitutes a huge menace to life and industry. Haining locals built the Scale River Wall - a dyke constructed with bulky slates spliced to give the appearance of fish scales -- during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796), and it is as solidly secure today as ever. In 1998 the sloping embankment of the river was further reinforced in order to withstand the largest anticipated flood of the century.

Haining’s spectacular high tide is nonetheless a blessing to local economy as it attracts throngs of tourists. “There are a number of rivers on earth that have impressive high tides, including Amazon and Colorado rivers, but none of them compares to the Qiantang River, in terms of height, speed and kaleidoscopic changes in swell,” says Zhou Lingqiang, deputy chief of Tourism Institute of Zhejiang University.

Fast-Fading Shadow Magic

Another of Haining’s attractions is the opportunity it offers to enjoy the ancient performance art of Shadow Play -- regarded as a live fossil of drama. There are many stories as to its origins, the most popular dating back to Han Emperor Wudi (156-87 B.C.) and the death of Li, his favorite concubine. Li was admired for her dancing and singing accomplishments as well as her stunning beauty. Her death at a tragically young age broke the emperor’s heart. A wily “spiritualist” offered to conjure up her spirit, which took the form of a young woman’s silhouette visible against a voile curtain by candlelight. The Emperor was apparently comforted by it.

Shadow Play became a mainstream theatrical art during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when it transcended all social delineations, being performed in teahouses and taverns, in well-to-do households and in the imperial palace itself. It reached its zenith in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

This venerable performance art first emerged in northern China, but was swept south along with the exodus of theatrical performers escaping the ravages of wartime. Its absorption of southern cultural elements helped it evolve into a unique genre. Haining was the hub of Shadow Play in southern China, and is still a major venue for the ancient art. Production and performance techniques have been handed down from generation to generation, any innovation having being viewed with extreme reservation. Contemporary Haining Shadow Play is hence little different from what it was in the Song Dynasty, as compared to that performed in other regions which adapted and changed with the times.

Haining Shadow Play puppets are more flexible than those of other regions because their joints are linked with quills rather than thread or metal hooks. The Song legacy is most evident in the formal quality of the Haining Shadow Play style of performance and music, whereby the stage is fringed with lanterns and flanked with lion statues on either side. The accompanying songs are the Southern Haiyan and Geyang tunes that were popular during the Southern Song Dynasty.

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Haining Shadow Play had made its name in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai. At one time there were as many as 600 Shadow Play performers in about 60 troupes, the most distinguished of whom were invited to perform for the emperor.

But Shadow Play, in common with many other facets of Chinese culture, was almost completely destroyed during the “cultural revolution.” It was at the beginning of the 1990s that Shadow Play puppeteer Wang Qiansong summoned the seven surviving Shadow Play craftsmen to help him rebuild the famous Lang Family Troupe.

Founded in 1875 by Lang Achun, during its prime the Lang Family Troupe had several companies, and lanterns bearing the Lang name lit the Shadow Play stage in towns and cities throughout southern China. The last family head of the troupe was fourth-generation puppeteer Lang Zili, who learned the art from his father and grandfather as a child and started performing at the age of 13. Four years later, his grandfather’s deemed him qualified to act as troupe head, and Lang Zili lead the troupe to glory when, in the 1950s, he and his company performed for state leaders, including vice premier Chen Yi, in Beijing.

Wang Qiansong was originally an exponent of the folk art of paper cuts. During the “cultural revolution” he risked his life by concealing Shadow Play props within the wall of his sheepfold, thus saving them from willful destruction. When the national chaos died down, he repaired the puppets and resuscitated this most celebrated of Shadow Play companies. Wang has so far created more than 1,000 leather puppets and restored 300 of the traditional plays in the Lang Family Troupe. It has since toured several metropolises within China and also traveled abroad.

The troupe’s prospects are nevertheless grim. Some of the eight folk artists who helped revive it have died, and those still living are in their 80s. The death of one, Lang Zili in a car accident in 2002, struck a heavy blow, as none of his children were versed in the craft. This put paid to the familial aspect of the troupe. In order to save Haining Shadow Play from total extinction, Wang Qiansong went on a tour of schools throughout the nation, giving lectures on this precious facet of Chinese performance culture and encouraging schools to run specialized courses on it.

Classy Leather and Fancy Threads

As regards contemporary achievements, Haining is eminent in China’s private economy. It is site of the nation’s largest leather products transaction center -- a 3-story, 160,000-sq-m entity housing more than 1,300 stalls that sell leather suitcases, bags, coats and other products -- whose sales volume hit RMB 6.8 billion in 2004. Visitors are amazed to find that these locally made leather goods are equal in quality and design to top world brands.

Haining is also a leading light in the textile trade. The two fabric markets in the city’s Xucun provide an unparalleled 35 percent of domestically produced textiles for the Chinese market. In 2004 its transactions hit RMB 4.02 billion.

Haining undoubtedly stands out among China’s tourist resorts in offering its visitors the chance to witness a natural wonder and also enjoy an authentic and ancient, albeit fast disappearing, performing art, plus a large choice of crafted leather gifts and souvenirs.