Shadow puppetry is a shadow play that uses animal skins to carve characters into two-dimensional idols and performs stories with lights reflected on a curtain. It integrates folk art, music, dance, and rap. Chinese shadow puppetry can be divided into northern shadow puppetry and southern shadow puppetry: Northern shadow puppetry is represented by Luanzhou, Hebei, and southern shadow puppetry is led by Sichuan shadow puppetry.

The emergence of Sichuan shadow puppets can be traced back to the late Qianlong period. Li Tiaoyuan (1734-1803 AD), a Sichuan scholar, opera theorist and poet in the mid-Qing Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Shadow Lantern Opera": "The overthrow is all determined by two hands, and there is no reason to hear and hear, and there is a clear fight for land. "City battles, great victories for the army" vividly reflects the performance of the shadow puppet troupe in Mianzhou's rural areas in the late Qianlong period. The subjects of Sichuan shadow puppet creation are very wide, including celebrity anecdotes, literary stories, opera singing, religious myths, folk customs, folklore and social life, etc. It is a perfect combination of folk handicrafts and folk literature and art.

Sichuan shadow puppets include two categories: northern Sichuan shadow puppets and Chengdu shadow puppets. In terms of craftsmanship, they are all made on yellow cowhide that has been polished, thinned, flattened and dried, and then carved, It is made through steps such as painting and dyeing, fixing glue, waxing to bring out the light, and connecting with threads. However, in terms of shape, due to differences in geographical environment, folk customs and appreciation habits, both have their own artistic characteristics.

Chengdu shadow puppetry is the most local and representative type of Sichuan shadow puppetry, which mainly coordinates with Sichuan opera singing. In the mid-Qing Dynasty, people from Shaanxi came to Sichuan for business, and Shaanxi shadow puppets were also introduced to Sichuan. From 1851 to 1853, a group of painters who loved the art of Sichuan opera and were interested in studying shadow puppets collaborated with Zhong Jiezi and Liu Dengying, the famous shadow puppet sculptors in Chengdu at that time, to carve a set of authentic Sichuan shadow puppets. They drew on the exaggerated and deformed modeling techniques of door gods in folk woodblock New Year pictures (mainly Mianzhu woodblock New Year pictures) and the highly contrasting, bright and bright color patterns of folk murals and temple paintings. They also absorbed the simple, elegant and highly decorative style. Various patterns such as water, clouds, dragons, phoenixes, flowers, birds, insects, and grasses in Shu brocade, Shu embroidery, folk paper-cutting, and printing and dyeing have strong local colors. It was from this time that Sichuan shadow puppets began to form a unique artistic style.

The whole body of Chengdu shadow puppets is divided into 14 joints. The head can be inserted into the leather ring wrapped with thin wire around the neck, and the other joints are connected with fine hemp ropes. A well-dressed shadow figure is divided into three parts: hat, head (collectively called "shaozi"), and clothes and shoes (called "handle"). Chengdu shadow puppets have more joints and segments than northern shadow puppets, and are well-proportioned. Instead, they use soft whiskers and soft hair, which can be manipulated with ease and flexibility.

In terms of carving and decorative patterns, Chengdu shadow puppets imitate Sichuan Opera, and also absorb and adopt the patterns on "Sichuan Brocade" and "Sichuan Embroidery", using openwork carving technology, with beautiful lines, exquisite clothes and pleasing colors. In terms of facial makeup, Chengdu shadow puppets have a protruding arc-shaped forehead, a curved chin, and a plump face, which is very different from northern shadow puppets. Carving shadow puppets is expensive and time-consuming. It takes about 3 to 4 days to carve a shadow puppet. There are at least 700 or 800 shadow puppets in a shadow puppet troupe. It takes a skilled carving artist seven to eight years or more to complete.

The characters in the shadow puppet show are divided into different professions, and there are many categories within the same profession. Students are divided into Wen and Wu students. The head is an incised hollow face, with the sky representing the color, a sky-high nose bridge, flat lips and small eyes, and a small pursed mouth. Dan is mainly divided into Lao Dan, Zhongnian Dan, Daoma Dan, Qingyi, etc. Among them, Qingyi is also called "little" and is very similar to raw horn in carving. Jing, which belongs to the category of painted faces, is carved with the help of a combination of lines and "color application". It has a prominent forehead, a hooked nose, long and large eyebrows, diagonally inserted into the temples, and the face has various colors such as red, green, and black. . Mo refers specifically to old students, also known as "beard" in movies. The shape is hollow and hollow, and the main feature is the beard. Young and middle-aged people usually have 3 or 5 beards, and old people have 5 or long beards. Ugly, ugly men are generally called peanuts, and ugly women are called Huadans. The characteristics of ugliness are mainly reflected in the eyes. Usually, circles are drawn around the eyes, or the nose is turned up, the face is pockmarked, etc. The head hat is also different from other categories, making it look humorous and frivolous. Gods and monsters include characters such as the King of Hell, the Imp, and the Judge.

Shadow puppets are puppet plays, and manipulation is a very important part of the performance. Generally, three bamboo poles are placed on the shadow figure's neck and hands respectively. The shadow figure's activities are mainly expressed by hand movements, so the manipulation of the hand poles is the most critical.

Chengdu shadow puppets are larger in size, and the operating poles are sometimes not limited to 3. The martial arts scenes in the movie are very difficult to control. There are moves and styles for jumping, jumping and fighting, and the success or failure directly affects the performance effect.