Your Shadow plays My Affinity Yang, Chih-Ying

Introduction As a witness of the disappearance of Taiwanese Shadowgraph, I would like to re-interpret the art by computer animation and trigger a narrative by re-positioning its role in the Taiwanese modern life with the idea of “Your Shadow Plays My Affinity.” By following the history flow of Taiwanese shadowgraph, the map itself vividly portrays that the shadowgraph not only plays the entertainment role to certain Taiwanese, but also plays the affinity inside of them. Accompanying the changes of media environment, nowadays Taiwanese young generation has their own affinity with new media, such as network and movies. Even thought the shadowgraph is declining in our life, it still plays its own narrative with different images in young generation’s mind.

Motivation As a young generation in the north of Taiwan, I was taught not to play the shadowgraph or touch the topic because of the cultural difference between northern and southern Taiwan. It is a pity I lost the opportunity to enjoy the traditional art. Thus, I chose Taiwanese shadowgraph as my thesis topic and Taiwanese young generation as my target audience in order to regain our losing cultural affinity.

Research The Origins It can be traced back to the Chaochow school of the shadow puppet theater, leather monkey shows or leather shows. It was popular in the southern counties of Taiwan early as the Ming ( AD) and Ching Dynasty ( AD) and later became one of the primary forms of the folk drama, which tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths.

Research Status Quo of Taiwanese Shadowgraph The Taiwanese shadowgraph art started declining in the mid fifties because of the rise of televisions and the movie industry. Only five shadowgraph troupes exist in the south of Taiwan. The cultural difference caused by geographical distributions: 1. Northern Taiwanese people lost the opportunities to enjoy the art. 2. Scary image of the leather puppets.

Target Audience Two Problems of Handing Down Shadowgraph Cultural difference caused by geographical distributions between northern and southern Taiwan. 1. Economical activities started flourishing in the south of Taiwan 2. Difficult Traffic in the past 3. Traditional glove puppet (N: Cyuanjhou; S: Chaochow ) 4. Scary image and religious taboo Changed media environment 1. The rise of the television and movie industry in mid fifties. 2. Young generation is major network and movie users (Taiwan NICI government report 2007, EICP 2008 ).

Precedent & Mentors “A Study of Using Multimedia to Help Shadowgraph Education.” 1. Experiment on two student groups of learning shadowgraph. Flash interface & Play a real puppet > Flash interface 2. The researcher suggested that the further research can add more interactive elements which focus on how to play a shadow puppet to help student learn the shadowgraph. In- depth Interviewer of shadow playing masters 1. Chang, Hsing-Kuo: shadowgraph puppet not only earns his living but also plays his life.. 2. Lin, Jhen-San : Create more audience and combine modern scripts, music, and computer technology.

Design Idea Your Shadow plays My affinity : Nowadays, Taiwanese Young generation is major network and movie users (Taiwan NICI government report 2007, EICP 2008). I started thinking that I can combine the traditional art and the computer technology as a new media resolution which can let young generation have the opportunity to experience it. My first prototype is a digital puppet made by Processing. The puppet has similar structure with the real shadow puppet. I would like to create the interactive interface for young generation to experience the art with their intimate media.

Prototype One Your Shadow plays My affinity : Processing Interface The Processing puppet is composed of ten separate segments, including the head, and each segment of the puppet’s hand and leg which can be rotated all the way around by key-pressing. The puppet’s position can be changed by user’s mouse-dragging.

Assumption 1. Chang, Hsing-Kuo: key-pressing by users’ fingers can help them experience the way the masters learned how to control the puppet. 2. After testing target audience, they suggest that I can add different functions to change the characters, bg, and make puppet move fast than it does.

Design Idea Your Shadow plays My affinity : After in-depth interviewing with two shadow playing masters, I got the idea of my second prototype, I would like to create a narrative and focus on presenting the culture difference caused between young and old generations and by geographical distributions. In order to invite more young people to enjoy the art, the goal of my animation is to let them know that playing shadowgraph in reality life can be as challenging and fun as playing computer games in the virtual world.

Prototype Two Your Shadow plays My affinity : Animation Three main characters: The old father, his son, and the shadowgraph puppet to represent the cultural gap between old and young generations in Taiwan. The old father : a shadow playing master. His son : the designer of the computer game. The story timing is during the ghost month in Taiwan, July in the lunar calendar.

Prototype Two Story: The father is busy making the leather shadowgraph puppet in the evening but his son is unwilling to help him and laughs at his out-of-date business. At midnight, the petty ghost comes into their house and is going to damage their life. The shadowgraph puppet suddenly wakes up and tries to fight against the ghost. At the same time, the son starts sleepwalking and imitates the characters in the computer game. But the son makes the situation worst. Finally, the puppet successfully frightens the ghost by controlling the son’s body with the traditional sticks rather than the game remote controller, and by playing a traditional shadowgraph show of “Jhong Kuei catches the ghost.” Jhong Kuei is the master of catching the ghosts in the Chinese legends.

Conclusion After testing my target audience and having the conversation with shadow playing masters, I decide to go for the second prototype (trigger a narrative animation) for the goal of inviting young generations to know and then enjoy the art.) From the summer research result and in-depth interviewer’s suggestions, I felt that to create a narrative by combining the traditional shadowgraph art with the computer technology, such as effects, sound, editing, etc can deliver the essence of shadowgraph show better than only by interactive interface. People can sit in front of the new media and enjoy the traditional art which plays not only the masters’ affinity but also our technology’s affinity.