‘捅破棚窗纸’

‘捅破棚窗纸’Literally means to pierce the white paper of the shadow play stage.In fact, it is often used to refer to uncovering the truth of things.

Practice speaking this sentence in Teochew dialect:

Shadow puppetry

Shadow puppetry is a traditional performing art that uses silhouettes of figures carved from animal skins, which are flat and movable.

The puppets are manipulated by sticks and placed between a light source and a translucent screen. The puppets are accompanied by scripts, music, and narration to tell stories.

Teochew shadow play

In the past, Teochew shadow play was commonly known as ‘纸影戏'(paper shadow play) or ‘皮猴’(leather monkey).

It is a kind of square play that is quite popular. The original shadow play used pink light projection. The front of the stage was covered with white paper, which was called ‘棚窗’ (the stage window).’纸’means paper,’捅破’means ‘break’.

So,’捅破棚窗纸’means break the stage window paper.Through the “stage window” you can see the actors backstage.Then you would know who is voicing the puppets.

Fall in love with The ‘Beauty’

The actors manipulated the stage, sang, and played music all from behind the stage window, so the audience outside could only hear the sounds but not see the people.

It is said that a rich young man was fascinated by the sweet voice of a female role when he was watching Teochew shadow play. Standing in front of the stage, he felt that the singing was clear and graceful, touching and moving.

He thought that the female role actress must be as beautiful as a flower. From then on, he went to the stage every day, thinking about the “beauty” in the stage.

But he couldn’t see clearly, so he lost his appetite and fell into lovesickness. No medicine worked, and he became thinner and thinner. Everyone in his family was very worried.

‘The beauty’ is an old man

There was an old servant in the house. After asking the young man about the cause of his illness, he smiled and said, “Heart disease needs heart medicine to cure. I may have a way.”

So he took the young man to the stage to watch a play. When they arrived at the stage, the old servant approached the stage and deliberately tore the stage window paper.

The young man looked inside and saw that all the actors were men, and the one he loved who played the female role was actually a wrinkled old man.

The young man felt ridiculous and the knot in his heart was suddenly untied. The disease was cured without treatment.

Since then, the saying ‘捅破棚窗纸’has been passed down.