I Want to Be a Shadow Craftsman Among Shadow Puppets

Chen Mo, a young man who adheres to the intangible inheritance of shadow puppetry, lives with his grandfather, guarding the shadow puppetry troupe passed down by his ancestors and boxes of shadow puppet props engraved with time. By accident, he discovered that among the shadow puppets soaked in craftsmanship and stories, there were hidden "spirits" that knew ancient and modern legends and unofficial secrets - neither gods nor monsters, but more like the condensed memories of countless generations of shadow puppets that resonated with the stories. This "spirit" does not confer superpowers, but it can awaken those folk histories, fragments of myths, and historical anecdotes that have been buried by time when he performs shadow puppets, making every cut with the knife and every pull of the thread create a wonderful echo with the story itself. In order to keep this ancient skill alive in the modern city, Chen Mo started from a small stage in the streets and alleys. With exquisite production technology and unique interpretation techniques, he brought the strange stories in "Youyang Zazu", the anecdotes in "Taiping Guangji", and the secrets of unofficial history in the gaps of official history, one by one, onto the shadow puppet stage. He honed his skills between carving knives and lamp shadows, and found resonance in history and legends. From being ignored to gradually becoming known, he finally allowed shadow puppetry to shine again on the contemporary stage. His growth has nothing to do with fantasy and magical powers, but only the ultimate pursuit of a craft - making every shadow puppet "alive" and letting every story "pass on".