New Zealand Shadow Puppets Workshop was established in 2016, with a focus on promoting the traditional Chinese art of shadow puppetry. In 2018, building on the foundation of the studio, we applied to the Department of Internal Affairs to expand into the New Zealand Shadow Puppetry Art Troupe.
Our mission is to promote the Chinese intangible cultural heritage—shadow puppetry and paper-cutting arts—in New Zealand, sharing and showcasing traditional Chinese folk arts. We aim to help people of all ethnic backgrounds better understand Chinese culture and appreciate the shadow puppetry performance art, which has a history spanning over two thousand years.
Shadow puppetry is considered a living fossil of drama, hailed as the “forerunner of film and the ancestor of animation.” We strive to be creative and innovative in our promotional approaches, working hard to introduce Chinese cultural arts to a wider audience and become ambassadors of cultural exchange.