Keyword: pi ying xi

皮影戏(pí yĭng xì)--shadow puppetry/play

——用兽皮或纸板做成的人物剪影来表演故事的戏曲，民间流行很广。表演时，用灯光把剪影照射在幕上，艺人在幕后一边操纵剪影，一边演唱，并配以音乐。也叫影戏，有的地区叫驴皮影。

——Modern Chinese Dictionary

As each Chinese character has its own several meanings, I would explain this word character by character first.

皮-- leather

影— shadow

戏-- play

And the translation of this entry(translated by myself instead of an offical one) is:

A traditional (Chinese) play of storytelling using leather or paper made silhouette figures, popular among common people. Illuminating the backdrop to show the figures. Performers manipulate the figures at the back of the screen and sing local opera, accompanied with music. It is also called shadow play or mule-leather shadow.

First, The reason why I chose this word as the keyword is that I think there would be an misunderstanding in this translation by using the word "shadow".
"影" actually means shadow in English, but it also represents a certain meaning that English does not express.
I major in language and as a half professional translater, I always pay attention to how my readers think and feel when they see the translated words.
Ok, now follow me. When you see the word "shadow puppetry/play", what kind of images do you have in your mind?
Thinking time.........
Then let us check out together whether your image in head is what I am going to talk about.

Misunderstanding—shadow:

It is not an entire shadow but more of a silhouette shadow. This audience can see the color of the figures

--not 100% black and white.

The figure is half transparent with differert colors. By letting the lights through the figures, it creats an special effect. Quite similar to the look of colorful glass windows in the church.

Second, I am wondering if the word "puppet" can be used to describe these figures used in 皮影戏(pí yĭng xì).

There is an entry in Oxford dictionary about "Puppet":

A movable model of a person or animal that is typically moved either by strings controlled from above or by a hand inside it.

But actually the figures are like:

Misunderstanding—puppet:

--two-dimentional instead of three-dimensional

--moved by sticks instead of strings or hands

There is link of a video for a very simple play.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTY0MDI4OTY=.html

Ruirui Liu