Chinese Puppets Gallery

Zhengli Xu was born on August 27, 1945, in Chong Qing, Sichuan province, China, and grew up in Beijing. He started to study puppetry in second grade. By age 15, he entered the puppet school of China Puppet Art Troupe, which was the first puppetry school in China. After 4 years study his talents earned him a spot in the Beijing troupe as a puppeteer and puppet maker. At that time, in 1960, the troupe was allowed to perform only stories that had been approved by the communist government. On his own, Xu traveled to villages where he learned the traditional puppet plays and studied different puppet-making styles. Over time, the Beijing troupe was allowed to add some of his new stories to their repertoire, and Xu became widely respected as a director of puppet show.

Yuqin Wang was born on September 21, 1946, in Beijing China. Wang’s training began in the Beijing Opera School when she was ten years old. By the time she was eighteen she had already sung and acted in scores of classical Beijing operas. Beginning in 1964, she directed her artistic energy toward puppetry. Through years of research and experimentation, she brought new excitement to puppetry by weaving into it traditional opera techniques. She has played the lead role in more than thirty puppet shows, numerous movies and television programs. She has performed throughout the world, receiving critical praise everywhere.

Before coming to America, Yuqin Wang and her husband and fellow performer, Zhengli Xu, were both leading puppeteers with the famous China Puppet Art Troupe for more than 30 years. When Wang and Xu came to Oregon in 1996 they founded their own puppet theatre—Dragon Art Studio. In their first year, they were invited performers at the Atlanta Summer Olympics, and over the past eight years they have shared the beauty and excitement of Chinese rod puppetry with audiences throughout the country. In addition they, with their daughter Brenda, take their puppet performances to schools, libraries, museums, etc. And they teach in Oregon traditional arts apprenticeship program. In 1999, Xu and Wang produced and performed a large production of “Maiden Pearl” at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in Portland, Oregon to critical acclaim.
Yuqin Wang and Zhengli Xu were honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, which presented them with the 2004 National Heritage Fellowship Award, the highest honor our nation gives to folk and traditional artists. Previous Fellows have included B.B. King, Earle Skruggs and Michael Flatley.