Cradle of shadow puppetry – Anjing Elementary School

In a small 31-student elementary school, around half the students train in shadow puppetry and give performances through their school club. In the last 16 years, students and teachers of shadow puppetry at Anjing Elementary School (安靖國小) have fought their way to win numerous national awards at shadow puppetry competitions including countless first place awards. Diligence has equipped both teachers and students with a high level of shadow puppetry skill and a tacit understanding with each other. At the school, students must use their own after-school time to practice, and therefore must often make the journey home late in the evening as the sky twinkles with stars. As a small school in an outlying area of Taiwan, resources are rather thin, so in order to support the ancient cultural heritage of shadow puppetry parents support the club – those with money donate money, those with time donate their time. In this small elementary school with a big cultural atmosphere, school director Yu-Hua Chen (陳玉華) said: “The school parents’ association is the strongest proponent of Anjing Elementary School’s shadow puppetry。

PeoPo 公民新聞

Cradle of shadow puppetry – Anjing Elementary School 
http://www.peopo.org/news/101780

(以下是中文對照)

皮影戲的搖籃‧安靖國小 影音 ( 公義使者 )

一所只有31名學童的迷你小學，竟有半數學童參與「皮影戲」團的訓練與演出，16年來，嘉義縣安靖國小皮影戲師生，南征北討，奪下無數全國賽事的「特優」獎項，他們憑藉的是勤教勤學，贏得的是技巧與默契，在這所物資極度匱乏的偏鄉小校，學童們只能利用放學後的空檔學戲，也因此不得不踏著星光回家，為了藝術的傳承，家長們更是有錢出錢有力出力，為人文氣息本就濃厚的山城再注入一股藝術氛圍，學校主任陳玉華表示：家長會就是「安靖國小皮影戲」團的最強而有力的後盾。「安靖國小皮影戲」團的成立，源於16年前，家住彰化線西的黃興武老師，他深愛北管藝術與皮影戲，決定從小學紮根，在取得校方與家長會的同意後，黃老師自此開始彰化、嘉義來回的披星載月的教學生涯。黃興武認為，皮影戲是所有戲種最容易入門的一種，這種必需「黑暗中執行」的傳統偶戲，最講究的就是團體默契，從偶的製作、口白的訓練、燈光鑼鼓的配合、人物出場的順序，每個環節都不可能獨立成，因此團隊的默契訓練遠勝過個人的汗水淋漓。16年前第一批訓練出來的操偶師，現在已經成為社區皮影戲的種子師資。

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