The brilliance of Quanzhou puppetry, a national intangible cultural heritage that originated in Quanzhou, Fujian province, lies in the dexterity of the performers' fingers in manipulating their puppets by pulling threads. A recent example of this historical art was when a puppeteer manipulated a monkey puppet to play a guitar at the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum in Beijing, while another performance featured a robot dog dancing with the puppet, to the laughter of the audience.
The event ushered in the opening of a creative design competition initiated by the Quanzhou municipality, aiming at enlivening the city's rich cultural heritage.
A strategically important port of the Maritime Silk Road, Quanzhou was once a center of trade and was home to envoys and businesspeople from outside China. This history inspired developments in handicrafts and folk arts.
The competition, "Inclusive Zayton, Creativity and Shared Future of the Silk Road", is now open to competitors and hopes to boost creativity inspired by Quanzhou's unique history and local cultures. Zayton was the name foreign traders called Quanzhou in ancient times.
