The Head Iconography of the Chinese - Javanese Shadow Puppet

(Wacinwa) Collection of the Sonobudoyo State Museum of

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Hanggar Budi Prasetya

Puppetry Department, Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, Jl. Parangtritis Km 6.5, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: The Chinese – Javanese shadow puppet, Wacinwa, Pi ying xi, Tang Dinasty, Sie Jin Kui.

Abstract: The aim of my research is to explore and describe the iconography of the Chinese – Javanese shadow puppet

(Wacinwa) collection of the Sonobudoyo State Museum of Yogyakarta (SSMY). To explore the iconography

of the collection means at the same time to identify the shadow puppet characters. The shadow puppet set of

the museum was made in 1925 and have been popular between 1925 and 1967 mainly among the Peranakan

Chinese communities in Indonesia. Later on, for more than forty years, until 2014 this puppet was not

performed largely because of political reasons. Since 2014, this puppet, a unique tradition of art, has been

performed again several times. Although the quality and the condition of this puppet collection are

considerably good, a detailed iconographical study and especially, a complete catalogue of it, is still missing.

According to the research I can differentiate the following eight groups in the Wacinwa Collection of SSMY:

1. priests and monks; 2. emperors or kings; 3. aristocrats and noblemen; 4. generals and commanders; 5.

soldiers; 6. vendors and sellers; 7. children; 8. weapons (accessories). However in my present research my

aim is to describe and identify the characters of the Wacinwa collectionof the SMY, Indonesia one by one. In

the early stage, I attempted to identify the wacinwa by comparing it with the image on Sie Jin Kui’s comic.

In fact, this way turned to be unsuccessful. An image existing in the comics is excessively unclear. Then I

compared it with the Chinese shadow puppet (pi ying xi) and the Javanese shadow puppet. By looking at its

iconography, wacinwa is closer to Pi ying xi.

1 INTRODUCTION

The main problem regarding the identification of the

characters is that we do not know about any existing

parallel wayang sets. The Wacinwa set of puppets

were made to perform the Sie Jin Kui (Xi Rengui)

epic, written during the Tang dynasty, but the

iconography of the characters are clearly following

the art of the Ming dynasty (Prasetya, 2014, Prasetya,

at al, 2015).

Figure 1: Pi ying xi (left), Wacinwa (right)

Figure 2. Javanese shadow puppet

The first time identifying the Chinese-Javanese

shadow puppet (wacinwa), I initially thought that this

308

Prasetya, H.

The Head Iconography of the Chinese - Javanese Shadow Puppet (Wacinwa) Collection of the Sonobudoyo State Museum of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0008764003080313

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 308-313

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

puppet is a two-dimensional shape from three

dimentional other Chinese puppet called potehi

(Prasetya, 2014). This assumption turns out to be

false somehow. The wacinwa is more likely

influenced by Pi ying xi (figure 1) and Javanese

shadow puppet (figure 2)

The closeness between pi ying xi and Wacinwa

can be viewed from the puppet accessories and

equipments, for example, a palanquin (figure 2) and

a house (figure 3).

Wacinwa Pi ying xi

Figure 3: Palanquin Wacinwa (left) pi ying xi (right).

house (Wacinwa) house (Pi ying xi)

Figure 4: House - Wacinwa (left) pi ying xi (right).

2 THE ICONOGRAPHY OF HEAD

The heads of both Wacinwa and Pi ying xi are a very

important part. The head of the puppet's character are

changeable (Figure 5). The State Museum of

Yogyakarta’s (SMY) collection of wacinwa has 159

heads and 165 intact puppets consisting of human

figures (along with the head and the body), weapons,

flora, and fauna. As evidently observed, the head can

be grouped into several categories, namely (1) the

head without accessories; (2) the head with the bun

hairdo; (3) the head with fewer accessories; (4) the

head of a woman; (5) the head of a royal low-level

worker wearing a hat; (6) the head with a simple

fastening strap; (7) the head with a simple hat; (8) the

head with flower accessories; (9) the head wearing a

magnificent hat with red flower accessories; (10) the

head wearing a hat like the Roman army; (11) the

head wearing a hat with long feather accssories; (12)

the head wearing a crown.

Figure 5: Changeable puppet’s head.

The head without accessories

Figure 6: Head without accessories.

The head without accessories is used to describe

ordinary people, such as farmers or labourers’.

The head with the bun hairdo

The head with the bun hairdo is used to describe

the figures who are rather high-class, for example,

traders or farmers (Figure 7).

Figure 7: The head with the bun hairdo

The Head Iconography of the Chinese - Javanese Shadow Puppet (Wacinwa) Collection of the Sonobudoyo State Museum of Yogyakarta,

Indonesia

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The head with fewer accessories

The head with fewer accessories is used to describe

figures of clergies or the royal workers.

Figure 8: The head with fewer accessories.

The head of female

The female head is classified into four types, that

is, a head without accessories and with fewer

accessories. The female head without accessories

means an ordinary person. The head using accessories

are used to describe women in a particular class, for

example, the army, the civil servants, and so forth.

This puppet head is almost the same with the female

head of pi ying xi (Figure 9)

Figure 9: Female head and wacinwa puppet

Figure 10: The female head of pi ying xi.

The head of a low-level royal worker

The head as shown in figure 11 describes low-level

royal workers who push the carts or low-ranking

soldiers.

Figure 11: The head of a low-level royal worker

The head with a simple fastening strap

Figure 12: Head and puppet with a simple strap of acinwa

(left and center), pi ying xi (right).

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The head with a simple hat

Figure 13: The head of the figures of traders or farmers

The head with flower accessories

Figure 14: The head of a secondary rank soldier figure

The head wearing a magnificent hat with

red flower accessories

Figure 15: The head and the puppet of wacinwa’s secondary

rank soldiers (left and center), pi ying xi (right).

The head of the roman army

This model of head as shown in the figure 16

describes the secondary rank army. Such a model of

head is not found in the pi ying xi.

Figure 16: The Roman soldier-like head.

The head wearing a hat with long feather

accessories

The head wearing a hat with long feather is also

found in the pi ying xi puppet (Figure 17). The head

accessories as such are only worn by the top leaders

in the war.

Figure 17: The head and the puppet of wacinwa’s general

(left and center) and pi ying xi (right).

The Head Iconography of the Chinese - Javanese Shadow Puppet (Wacinwa) Collection of the Sonobudoyo State Museum of Yogyakarta,

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The crown head

Figure 18: The head and Wacinwa’s puppet (left and

center) and pi ying xi (right).

Three parts of the head were observed, namely the

shape of the eyes, the mouth, and the the nose.

2.1. The Shape of Mouth

Wacinwa’s mouth shape resembles a human’s

mouth. This shape resembles the shape of pi ying xi.

If compared to the Javanese puppet, it is different

considerably. The Javanese puppet has many

different forms (Figure 19).

Figure 19: Some forms of eyes, noses, and mouths of

Javanese puppets.

Wacinwa puppet’s mouth is similar to a human's

mouth.

Figure 20: Wacinwa’s mouth (left) and pi ying xi (right).

2.2. The Shape of Nose

Wacinwa’s nose shape is similar to the shape of pi

ying xi’s nose. If compared to the Javanese puppet, is

shows a big difference. As has been observed, there

are only two kinds of noses, that is, the long nose and

the common human’s nose.

Figure 21: The shape of Wacinwa’s nose

Figure 22: The shape of pi ying xi’s nose

2.3. The Shape of Eye

Wacinwa puppet’s eyes shape is similar to pi ying

xi’s, but the eyes of pi ying xi have their own

meanings. They take three forms namely long, narrow

eyes (a) that tilt up at the outside corner are used for

good character; crafty or wicked characters have

triangular eyes (b); and round eyes are used for brave,

hardly warriors (c) (Jilin, 1998: 15).

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Figure 23: Pi ying xi’s eyes

Similar to pi ying xi’s eyes, wacinwa also has three

types of eyes (Figure 24).

Figure 24: Wacinwa puppet’s eyes

3 CONCLUSIONS

The form of wacinwa puppet is simpler than that of pi

ying xi and Javanese puppet. The form of wacinwa is

a blend of pi ying xi and Javanese puppet. The

characters in pi ying xi resemble the characters in

wacinwa. Therefore, iconography of pi ying xi can be

used to help identify wacinwa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article is based on field work funded by

Directorat Riset dan Pengabdian Masyarakat

(DRPM) Ministry of Research, Technology, and

Higher Education – Republic of Indonesia. I am

deeply indebted to all puppet master in Hubei

Province, China who give me the unvaluable

information.

REFERENCES

Jilin, Liu. 1988. Chinese Shadow Puppet Plays. Beijing:

Morning Glory Publishers

Prasetya, Hanggar Budi. 2014. Wayang Cina Jawa.

[Katalog Pameran]. Yogyakarta: Museum Negeri

Sonobudoyo.

Prasetya, Hanggar Budi. 2014. “Reconstruction of Chinese

– Javanese Shadow Puppet Theatre” [Prosiding]

presented at The 10th International Conference on

Southeast Asian Cultural Values in Seam Reap –

Cambodia, December 4-5 organized by Asia Research

Center - Royal Academy of Cambodia & Korea

Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS).

Prasetya, HB., Mastuti, DW., Albilabiah, I. 2015. Kajian

Wacinwa Silang Budaya Cina Jawa. Yogyakarta:

Museum Negeri Sonobudoyo.

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