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Hengshan Shadow Puppetry is a local traditional drama art in Hengshan County, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, and one of the provincial intangible cultural heritages of Hunan Province. As a unique national folk art, Hengshan shadow puppetry is loved by the masses from content to form. After inheritance and development, it has spread all over Hengshan County and surrounding areas.

"One person plays a set of gongs and drums, and two people play a Bodhisattva." These words vividly describe the scene of the Hengshan shadow puppet show, where one person performs the shadow puppetry and the other plays the gongs and sings. According to statistics, during the prosperous period of the shadow puppetry in Hengshan County, there were more than 60 puppets, and there were more than a hundred people engaged in the art of shadow puppetry. Nowadays, the audience is sluggish, and there are only nearly ten puppets left. What's more, there are only two provincial inheritors. When the old artists from Hengshan talked about this situation, they couldn't help but sigh with tears in their eyes. The current shadow play is "someone invites it, but no one watches it", "someone learns it, but no one can support the family".

As the performance market in rural areas and temple fairs shrinks, and due to factors such as language, culture, and economy, the audience for Hengshan shadow puppetry gradually decreases. The performance times of the shadow puppet troupe are not fixed, and the peak performance season is usually around festivals. There are usually few performances and are limited by various natural and man-made factors, so the number of performances is also uncertain. Singing opera could no longer support their families, and shadow puppet artists were forced to change careers one after another. Young people know less about shadow puppetry, it is difficult to learn the art, and there is a gap among the inheritors.

(1) Loss of audience for shadow puppet shows

The entertainment function of shadow puppetry is gradually lost, and it has been reduced to a tool to reward gods. Some elderly people make wishes in front of their ancestors or Bodhisattvas. When their wishes come true, they think that the ancestors or Bodhisattvas have appeared. Therefore, they invite a theater troupe to sing a play in order to thank their ancestors or Bodhisattvas. However, there are only a few audiences watching the opera. They are either a few or two elderly people who come to support, or the host sits in front of the stage to enjoy the performance. Sometimes it is purely to fulfill a wish, and there is basically no audience [12].

In the heyday of Hengshan shadow puppetry, one troupe could perform more than 2020 performances a year, and shadow puppet lovers were eager to follow it. In October 10, a "Three Advances" performance of Hengshan County's traditional shadow drama was held locally. Touring performances were performed in Kaiyun Town, Yangtze River Area, Xuanzhou Area, Futian Area and other places. Frequently performed plays include "Pingyang" "Back to the Kiln", "Flaming Mountain", "Pipa Enters the Palace", "Tianzhu and Hibiscus", "The Story of the Lantern", "The Blind Man Changes His Career", "Qin Mu's Longevity", etc. Nowadays, even if such a free performance is launched, there are still more than a thousand tickets. From this, we know that the audience of Hengshan shadow puppetry is indeed a niche range.

The audience of Hengshan shadow puppetry is smaller than that of Pingju opera and Peking opera. Most of the people who really appreciate the shadow puppet show are the elderly. They listen to the melodious and melodious tone of the shadow puppet show, and recall the excitement and happiness of everyone sitting together when watching the shadow puppet show. Most young people do not really like to watch performances, but rather join in the fun and curiosity. Due to the local dialect singing, passers-by cannot understand what the artists sing and perform. Also because of the slow pace of the shadow puppet show and the old-fashioned singing in the script, many people dislike and reject the shadow puppet show.

As the elderly audiences who understand and like to listen to shadow puppetry gradually leave, the audience for shadow puppetry is gradually lost and exhausted. The sharp decline in the audience is the most direct and realistic manifestation of the decline of Hengshan shadow puppetry.