{"id":15183,"date":"2026-09-17T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=15183"},"modified":"2026-09-17T08:46:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:46:28","slug":"chasing-the-ephemeral-keeping-chinese-puppetry-in-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2026\/09\/17\/chasing-the-ephemeral-keeping-chinese-puppetry-in-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing the Ephemeral: Keeping Chinese Puppetry in Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

At 1am on a bracingly cold night in Kinmen, Taiwan, Dr Caroline Chia (Arts & Social Sciences \u201906) was chasing the ephemeral.<\/p>

Wrapped against the chill, she navigated country roads by motorcycle from one ritual site to another, closely following a Hokkien kaleihi<\/em> (string puppet) puppeteer who doubled as a Taoist priest. She documented the performances staged as part of a ritual known as \u201cPacification Offering\u201d, intended to secure the site and ward off malevolent forces.<\/p>

The intangible, once missed, may never happen in quite the same way again. That keen awareness of transience lends urgency to Dr Chia\u2019s work, to document traditional Chinese puppetry while it is still practised, even when it means giving up a warm bed in the dead of the night.<\/p>

“Kinmen is still a very conservative society, so when there were rituals off-limits to women, my husband had to step in with my camera to record the proceedings,” she recalls wryly.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"Hainanese
Hainanese troupe San Chun Long practising backstage, 2016. Credit: Jace Tan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Hainanese
Hainanese puppets, manipulated using wooden rods, 2016. Credit: Jace Tan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Hokkien
Hokkien troupe Chew Yee Puppet Show performing with its string marionettes, 2015. Credit: Jace Tan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Teochew
Teochew troupe Sin Sai Poh Hong performing for the last time in 2015, manipulating their puppets with iron rods. Credit: Jace Tan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

DRAWN TO THE LESSER KNOWN\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Her journey into the esoteric began with Chinese street opera, her honours research as a NUS Chinese Studies undergraduate.<\/p>

\u201cMost of my course mates gravitated towards literature or history, but I wanted to do something that is not already documented,\u201d she says.<\/p>

That gave Dr Chia her first taste of fieldwork, attending temple festivals where performances took place and learning to reconstruct stories that could not be found in books.<\/p>

Then, one day in 2007, while riding a bus through Tampines, she spotted a small makeshift stage by the roadside. On it were what looked at first like bundles of colourful cloth. Looking closer, she realised they were puppets dressed in miniature Chinese opera costumes.<\/p>

\u201cI had never seen Chinese puppets. I was not even sure where to start,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>

At the National Archives of Singapore, she found her first leads: a small collection of oral history interviews with puppeteers conducted in the 1980s. From there, she began doggedly tracking down practitioners, locating extant troupes and ferreting out information on where performances would be staged next.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dr Chia shares insights into the rich traditions of Chinese puppetry.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

DECODING A HIDDEN WORLD<\/strong><\/p>

Bit by bit, Dr Chia began piecing together a little-documented world.<\/p>

What appeared at first glance to be a single tradition turned out to be distinct forms rooted in different dialect communities, from Hokkien string marionettes and glove puppets to Teochew iron-stick puppets and the large figures manipulated by Hainanese puppeteers using wooden rods. By the time she began research, Hakka puppet troupes had already disappeared.<\/p>

Traditional Chinese puppetry is deeply intertwined with folk Taoism. Performances are commissioned to give thanks to deities or form part of important rituals. Researching puppetry thus means delving into the beliefs surrounding each performance and getting immersed in temple festivals.<\/p>

The work demands an equally painstaking eye for detail.<\/p>

\u201cHere, the larger characters mark the sung passages, while the smaller ones indicate spoken lines,\u201d she says, pointing to a handwritten Henghua performance script. \u201cAnd where you see the red circles, those are cues for the music or percussion.\u201d<\/p>

To decode such scripts and make sense of opera performed in older forms of Chinese dialects, Dr Chia would record hours of material and go backstage to clarify unfamiliar phrases with puppeteers, working through recordings and scripts almost line by line.<\/p>

\u201cThey see me and they want to run,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBecause I would make them spend hours going through recordings and scripts with me.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Dr Chia's fieldwork has taken her to puppetry performances around the region.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

FUELLED BY URGENCY<\/strong><\/p>

The world Dr Chia studies is precarious.<\/p>

\u201cMany puppeteers are from working-class backgrounds and take on ad-hoc or part-time work for a living, returning to the stage when temples call on them to perform,\u201d she explains. \u201cOnce, I interviewed a practitioner as she went about cleaning toilets at her work, because that was the only time she could give.\u201d<\/p>

Such encounters reinforced how fragile the transmission of knowledge could be, since much of it lives in the memories and practice of performers.<\/p>

There is also no ready-made pathway for researching this world. While university programmes and fellowships supported parts of her fieldwork, the larger endeavour remains largely self-driven. Dr Chia chases grants, cultivates collaborators and assembles resources project by project. When necessary, she dips into her own pocket.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

In the field, she is often a one-woman crew.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve trained myself to be a very efficient multitasker,\u201d Dr Chia says matter-of-factly. \u201cOne camera on tripod recording the performance, and I would be running around with another camcorder to capture rituals happening elsewhere. Some festivals go on for 12 to 14 hours. Literally, you need both brain and leg power to sustain the fieldwork.\u201d<\/p>

What began as an investigation into local puppetry has since led her to research puppet theatre across southern China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Her book Hokkien Theatre Across the Seas<\/em> traces how theatrical forms travelled with migrants, then evolved differently in the communities where they took root.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Decoding handwritten Henghua performance scripts took years of perseverance.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

FROM RESEARCHER TO BRIDGE-BUILDER<\/strong><\/p>

The impulse to preserve is also deeply personal.<\/p>

Growing up, Dr Chia was especially close to her grandmother, who had migrated from Swatow and filled the home with Teochew songs played over Rediffusion. Her parents spoke Hokkien and Teochew, and these sounds became part of daily life.<\/p>

\u201cCulture makes us what we are,\u201d she shares. \u201cFor me, it is the languages, the music, the png kueh <\/em>(Teochew rice snack) my grandmother made. Not knowing our roots is to lose part of understanding who we are.\u201d<\/p>

For younger Singaporeans, traditional puppetry can feel remote, shaped as it is by dialects, temple culture and folk beliefs that many no longer encounter in daily life.<\/p>

Increasingly, Dr Chia has taken on the role of a bridge-builder, bringing puppetry beyond the temple setting and onto arts and cultural platforms. By connecting troupes with museums and arts organisations, she hopes to give new audiences access to traditions. Singapore\u2019s oldest surviving Hainanese puppetry troupe, San Chun Long, has since performed at venues such as the Esplanade \u2013 Theatres on the Bay.<\/p>

Today, Dr Chia juggles her work as an Oral History Specialist at the National Archives of Singapore, raising two young children and continuing her research and advocacy for traditional puppetry. At home, she shares her experience by telling her children stories using hand puppets and a small puppet stage she fashioned herself.<\/p>

\u201cWhenever I have some spare time, I will be thinking about the next project, the next piece of research, the next collaboration that might help pass puppetry on,\u201d she confesses.<\/p>

\u201cWhat we need are more structured heritage studies programmes that document not just puppetry, but the many cultural traditions that are fast disappearing from Singapore. Until that happens, I\u2019ll just keep doing what I can.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Main photo and last photo by Zhiwei Chen<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From temple festivals to late-night fieldwork across the region, Dr Caroline Chia (Arts & Social Sciences \u201906) has spent nearly two decades chasing the stories, people and practices behind traditional Chinese puppetry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15183"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15535,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15183\/revisions\/15535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}