As Li Wenxing arrives at the rehearsal room of Guangdong Province Puppet Art Theater, Guangzhou city is still sleeping. It’s 6:30 am and the silence is conspicuous. Li, 23, graduated from a drama performance major at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai campus last summer. Her parents asked her to come back to her hometown in Henan province, but she decided to apply to the puppet theater instead.
当李文星（音译）赶到广东省木偶艺术剧院的排练厅时，整个广州还在睡梦之中。此时是早上6点半，周遭鸦雀无声。23岁的李文星去年夏天毕业于北京师范大学（微博）珠海校区戏剧表演专业。尽管父母想让她回河南老家，但她却应征了木偶剧院的工作。
“I loved these traditional arts when I was at university. I once saw an online video of a puppet show by the director of the puppet theater. It was really amazing and left a deep impression on me,” says Li.
“上大学时，我很喜欢这些传统艺术。我曾经在网上看过一个由广东省木偶艺术剧院导演执导的木偶剧。那部剧相当精彩，给我留下了深刻印象。”李文星说。
When she began to train, Li had to hold up a puppet, the lightest of which weigh more than 2.5 kilograms, for five to ten minutes at a time. Later, the time was gradually increased.
刚开始训练时，李文星一次必须要举5到10分钟的木偶，最轻的木偶也要2.5公斤重。接下来，“练功”时间渐渐增加。
“Every puppeteer needs to be able to hold up a puppet with one hand for at least 40 minutes. That’s why our right arms are always stronger and bigger than our left ones,” says Li.
“每个木偶戏表演者都需要能单手举起木偶，至少要保持40分钟。这就是为何我们的胳膊，右边要比左边粗壮的原因。”李文星说。
Painfully happy
痛并快乐着
After Lu Jie, 21, completed his puppet-lifting training, he faced an even more difficult task: He had to learn to control the puppet with two bamboo sticks. Lu practiced five to six hours every day and his fingers blistered easily. But he didn’t put on an adhesive bandage when the blisters broke.
在完成木偶托举训练后，21岁的卢杰（音译）面临着一项更加艰巨的“任务”：他要学习如何用两根竹竿来控制木偶。卢杰每天都要练习5到6个小时，他的手指很快便磨出了水泡。而水泡破了时，他却没有贴创可贴。
“It was very painful. But if I had begun using adhesive bandages, I would have relied on them and it would have made my fingers less flexible when controlling the puppet. So the only solution was for me to wait until my fingers grew thick calluses,” says Lu.
“水泡破了会很疼。而一旦开始用创可贴的话，我就会产生依赖性，这会让我的手指在控制木偶时变得不那么灵活。所以，对我来说唯一的解决方法是等——等到手指被磨出厚厚的茧子。”卢杰说。
Lu used to be a dancer before joining the puppet theater. He had never seen a puppet show before and it was a new experience for him.
卢杰在加入木偶剧院前是一名舞者。他之前从未看过木偶剧，对他而言，这是一次全新体验。
“I faced the audience directly when I was dancing, but now I had to express my emotions through a puppet. It was frustrating at first, but when I got used to it I felt like I had overcome a big challenge. It gave me a big sense of achievement,” says Lu.
“当我跳舞时，我直接面对观众；而现在，我不得不通过木偶来表达自己的情感。刚开始我有点沮丧，但当我习惯之后，我感觉像是克服了一个巨大的挑战。这让我很有成就感。”卢杰说。
His first performance was during the national holiday last year, when he played the head of a dragon in a show. “I felt a lot of pressure and was very nervous. I could hardly fall asleep the night before. Even though I only performed for seven minutes I was soaked with sweat,” says Lu.
他的首次表演是在去年国庆节期间，他在一场木偶剧中操纵龙头。“我感到压力很大，非常紧张。演出前一晚我根本睡不着。尽管只表演了7分钟，但我汗如雨下。”卢杰说道。
Compared with Li Wenxing and Lu Jie, Li Kuan, 22, is a senior in this profession. He comes from a family of puppeteers and is the sixth generation in his family to inherit this tradition. He began puppeteering after finishing junior middle school.
与李文星和卢杰相比，22岁的李宽（音译）算是这一行的“老手”了。他出身于木偶表演世家，是家中第六代木偶戏传人。初中毕业后，他就开始了木偶表演生涯。
“I grew up in a small village in Zhanjiang. After the rice had been gathered in August, the village would invite a puppet group to perform for a week. That was always the most wonderful period in the village and the puppet shows impressed me deeply,” says Li.
“我生长在湛江的一个小村庄。每年八月割完稻子后，村子里都会邀请木偶剧团来表演一周。这一直是村里最美妙的时光，一出出木偶剧令我印象深刻。”李宽说。
He went to Gaozhou to learn puppeteering from his uncle and began performing around Guangdong when he was 15 years old.
之后，李宽到了高州，跟随叔叔学习木偶表演。他15岁便开始登台表演了。
“Sometimes we would go out performing for a whole month. Besides the puppets and stage props, I also had to bring a mat and quilt. When we finished the show, I would spread out the mat beside the stage to sleep,” says Li.
“有时，我们一整个月都在外演出。除了木偶和道具，我还要带上被褥。演出结束后，我就会在舞台旁打地铺睡觉，”李宽说。
Behind the curtain
幕后的故事
Despite the hardship, Li says he enjoyed the experience. “Every time when I heard the applause and laughter from the audience, I felt a sense of achievement,” he says. Li joined the Guangdong Province Puppet Art Theater in 2007. The basic training was not difficult for him, but he needed to spend time creating and shaping his characters.
尽管很苦，但李宽说他很享受这段经历。“每当听到观众的掌声和笑声时，我都很有成就感。”他说。李宽于2007年加入了广东省木偶艺术剧院。虽然基本功对他来说是“小菜一碟”，但他需要花费时间来塑造和揣摩角色本身。
“Before, I learned by imitating the people in my village, but when I joined the puppet theatre I had to learn to create a role by myself. I needed to figure out their personality and I hope now I can make them come alive through my hands,” says Li.
“之前在我们村里，我是靠模仿别人来塑造角色的。但当我加入木偶剧团后，我不得不学着自己去塑造角色。我需要弄清人物性格。现在，我希望我能通过自己的双手赋予这些木偶生命力，”李宽说。
There are some 60 men and women in the puppet theater, and more and more from the post-1990s generation are enrolling to learn the traditional art from their seniors.
整个木偶剧团大约有60名成员。而越来越多的90后加入这支队伍，来向前辈们学习这门传统艺术。
In order to play their roles well, these young people discuss scripts with each other in their spare time and cherish every chance to practice with their puppets.
为了更好得诠释角色，这些年轻人在闲暇时间会一起切磋剧本，同时他们也很珍惜每一次同木偶练功的机会。
“We stay behind the curtain when we perform with the puppets, but when they laugh, we laugh, and when they cry, we cry, too,” says Lu.
“进行木偶表演时，我们待在幕后。但当木偶们开怀大笑时，我们也会开怀大笑，当他们哭泣时，我们也会哭泣，”卢杰说。
“There is a show on the stage, but there is also one behind it. When we come out with the puppets at the end of the show, the applause is for all of us,” says Lu.
“台前一出戏，台后也是一出戏。当表演结束我们举着木偶亮相时，掌声是属于我们所有人的。”卢杰说。
本文来源：21CN网
