Hunan puppet and shadow shows have a long history. They were popular in rural and urban areas as early as the Tang and Song dynasties. The Hunan Provincial Puppet and Shadow Art Theater, founded in 1956, performed for such Chinese state leaders as Mao Zedong Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, He Long and Chen Yi, as well as some foreign state leaders. It has visited and given performances in over 20 countries and regions including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the former Soviet Union, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. The Puppet and shadow shows performed by the theater, having a distinctive artistic style, are known to the world for steady and precise manipulation, exquisite and lifelike performance. They have won many prizes both at home and abroad, for instance, the "Best Performance" prize at the Third International Puppet Show Festival held in Romania in 1965, the honorary prize at the Australian International Puppet Show Festival in 1983, and the Wenhua Prize for new plays in 1993 and 1997.
