Li Tien-lu: Google pays tribute to Li Tien-lu, Taiwanese puppeteer, film actor

Happy Birthday Li Tien-lu!!!

Today Google dedicates a beautiful artistic doodle to Li Tien-lu, the famous Taiwanese puppeteer, educator and film actor. He is best known to the international audience for playing principal characters in several Taiwanese films directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Li Tien-lu was born on December 24, 1910 in Taipei. His father had trained him in glove puppetry since the age of eight. He helped to introduce the world to the traditional hand puppetry of his homeland.

Li Tien-lu was a charismatic symbol of Taiwanese identity who breathed new life into the artform of puppetry for over seven decades. He became a professional puppetry career as a young teenager, and in his early 20s he established his own troupe: I Wan Jan. He founded the puppet theatre troupe Almost Like Life in 1932, aged 22.

The group ended performances in 1937, soon after the Second Sino-Japanese War began and Japanese authorities censored Taiwanese Hokkien entertainment. Li's troupe premiered one of its most famous performances, 300 Years of Qing Dynasty — Keng Yao, in 1948. They became even more well-known under the Kuomintang government.

Li Tien-lu brought together elements like Peking opera and Taiwanese Beiguan music to craft a new form of glove puppetry called Wai Jiang Pai, and the troupe achieved great success from the '50s to the '70s.

In 1973, a French scholar took an interest in Tien-lu's craft and asked him to teach a few of the scholar's students. Soon enough, Tien-lu had pupils from around the world who in turn helped bring global popularity to the art of Taiwanese of puppetry. He spent the rest of his life travelling the globe to promote the art form, and also acted in films like 'The Puppetmaster' (1993), a biopic about his life.

Li Tien-lu also performed Peking opera, Taiwanese opera, and Hakka opera. He received Taiwan's National Heritage Award in 1985, and the National Cultural Award in 1991, which was bestowed with the title of 'living national treasure.' In 1995, the government of France named Li a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The Li Tien-lu Hand Puppet Historical Museum is named after Li and opened to the public in 1996.

Li Tien-lu died at the age of 87 on August 13, 1998. Li was posthumously featured in the 2001 documentary Tug of War: The Story of Taiwan. Google today pays tribute to the famous Taiwanese puppeteer, educator and film actor on his 110^th birthday.

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