Zhangzhou Ancient City has a puppet exhibition hall

Puppet Art Exhibition Hall (Xiangcheng, Zhangzhou) 🪵Notes: 1️⃣ In the afternoon, I saw the puppet section at the Zhangzhou City Museum and found it quite interesting. In the evening, I returned to Zhangzhou Ancient City and passed by the Puppet Art Exhibition Hall. Unexpectedly, it was still open, and the sign at the entrance said "Opening hours 9:00—21:00," so you can visit this hall even at night. 2️⃣ The hall is not large; you can see all the display areas at a glance upon entering, so there’s no need to worry too much about the visiting order. 3️⃣ Among the puppets on display, the first ones you see at the entrance are two "heavily made-up" puppets, which seem to be Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan. Their overly exaggerated hairstyles and expressions immediately bring joy. Besides these two puppets, most of the others have very exaggerated expressions, such as extreme anger, a sense of great power, gloominess, firmness, and so on. Among them, the Sun Wukong here is holding a staff and lifting a leg, with wide-open eyes and a tightly closed mouth, looking down at the visitors with a cold and fearless gaze; while Zhu Bajie has black hands, a bluish-gray face, and reversed colors of the eyeballs and whites, giving off a "demonic aura." These two Journey to the West characters’ puppet images left a deep impression on me. 4️⃣ The wall features illustrated introductions to puppet art from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and other places. There is a section about the "art of puppet head carving," which specifically mentions that the exaggerated puppet head shapes are designed to better attract the audience and help them clearly identify the personalities of each puppet on stage. Knowing this, the "magical" puppet heads are less frightening. 5️⃣ Puppet toys are sold at the front desk. 6️⃣ There is a nearby puppet performance hall, but when I went, there seemed to be no performance, so I missed it. Thinking back, it’s a bit of a pity. 🪵Location: No. 6 Penghu Road, Xiangcheng District, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province; inside Zhangzhou Ancient City. Date: 2025.9.3