Quanzhou String Puppetry Shines in Turkey

Turkish TV stations highlighted the performance of Quanzhou string puppetry at the "Colors of the World Expo 2025" in Istanbul, Turkey.

At 9:00 a.m. local time on April 18, 2025, the Confucius Institute at Boğaziçi University hosted an International Chinese Language Day art salon themed "A Gift from China Across Time and Space" at the Nafi Baba Building on the university's South Campus, in celebration of the United Nations' International Chinese Language Day.

Organized and supported by the Turkish Chinese Businessmen Association, three national-level performers and intangible cultural heritage inheritors from Quanzhou Puppetry Troupe - Lin Jianyu, Fu Duanfeng, and Wu Weihong - presented two wonderful performances: "Lion Dance" and "Dream of Youth." The lion dance performance, with its endearing clumsiness, nimble movements and lifelike expressions, earned rounds of applause and laughter from the audience on-site.

The "Dream of Youth" showcased the ultimate techniques and creative expression of traditional Quanzhou string puppetry art, as the artist skillfully transformed an elderly puppet into a youthful one by shedding the "cloak of time" layer by layer. Turkish student Zeynep exclaimed, "The puppet seems to be brought to life, and the Chinese artists' hands are like magic!"