Pingyao county, in Shanxi province, has been known for its shadow puppets for a long time, but when the Longzaitian Shadow Puppetry Club took part in the recent 9th International Culture & Creativity industry Expo, Dec 11 to 14, in Beijing, it earned even greater fame when It captured the audience with its unique puppetry.

The group's artists were able to show the world the cultural and charm of old Pingyao. The club is also known for its actors, all of them quite short, averaging around 1.2 meters, with an average age of 22. Their goal is to preserve their heritage and to support social equality by hiring people with physical flaws. For the past couple of years, it has been successful in revitalizing these shadow plays, which have been handed down from generation to generation but almost died out 50 years ago.

The club's leader, Bai Changmao, was at the head of the group when it went to the expo for the third time and noted that the play had a bigger audience at this year's expo, which was billed as the Creativity, Culture, Technology and Wealth expo. It pulled in 1,800 enterprises from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and 14 foreign countries, such as as the US, UK, Russia, Italy, and Australia.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw

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