![]() He'll continue to hone his craft and achieve the respect and admiration of his family. Now he will be accepted as a fully fledged puppeteer. When the show is over, both the audience and the puppeteers applaud. The performance culminates in an elaborate ballet, performed synchronically by a whole group of puppets connected up with a hidden string mechanism. The pieces are stories from everyday life, fairy tales and legends. The audience know the story lines and all the characters - the plots and the music are always the same. The Vietnamese word for dragon is Long - yes, that's also the name of our novice puppeteer. The dragon symbolizes the emperor - the lord and protector of the common people. As so often in Vietnamese culture, fire-breathing dragons play an important role in these stories. The puppeteers stand waist-deep in the water throughout the performance, in danger of attracting leeches or catching rheumatism. The story incorporates exciting pyrotechnic elements and gushing fountains of water. Long's grandfather inserts fireworks inside some of the puppets. The puppeteers are preparing for the show on the narrow walkway behind the screen. The audience will only be able to see vague shapes of Long and his fellow puppeteers behind a split-bamboo screen. Water puppetry has a long history in North Vietnam. Many villages around Hanoi used to have their own puppet theater. The villagers of Dong Nu, 30 kilometers away, await the puppeteers with great anticipation. The groups of puppets that move synchronically can weigh as much as 100 kilograms. A single water puppet weighs 15 kilograms. ![]() Long isn't only worried that he might do something wrong, he also fears that he might not have the strength to keep going throughout the entire performance. So the art has been a family tradition for a millennium. Back in the 11th century this venerable ancestor was carving figures out of fig wood and painting them with waterproof lacquer so that he could make them dance across the village pond. Long's family claim to be the direct descendants of the inventor of water puppetry. After all, daughters will become part of another family after they marry and may divulge all the puppeteers' tricks. The secrets of this ancient tradition are closely guarded and are only passed down from fathers to their sons - and no one else. He's making a puppet for use in a special art form unique to Vietnam - water puppetry. Under the watchful eyes of his great-grandfather, 12-year-old Long carves a piece of fig wood. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more. ![]() This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions. ![]() Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
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