After four days of wonderful performances, the 7th China Quanzhou International Puppet Festival     1     (come) to an end on December 12 in 2023 in Quanzhou, south China’s Fujian Province. The festival,     2     was held in the hometown of Chinese string (线) puppetry (木偶制作艺术), showed the high-level skills of Quanzhou’s puppetry artists, leaving audiences     3     (amaze).

In China, string puppetry is     4     important form of traditional theater that originated in Quanzhou during the Han Dynasty.     5     (actual), having been passed down over thousands of years, more than 700 traditional plays about folk beliefs and customs have been protected.

Each puppet is equipped with 8 to 16 strings, while more complex performances may require up to 36 strings. The strings     6     (divide) into several groups according to human movements, and all the actions are controlled by the hands of the puppetry artists.

To master string puppetry, skilled     7     (way) to perform puppets are not enough. Puppeteers also need to have rich life experiences     8     (understand) the emotional world of the characters to help bring the puppets to life.

On May 20, 2006, Quanzhou string puppetry was added     9     the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list (非物质文化遗产名录).

As the hometown of string puppetry, Quanzhou was also the first city in China to hold an international puppet festival and succeeded in     10     (host) six sessions in 1986, 1990, 2000, 2015, 2017 and 2019.