Senior Project Presentation
September 2023 – November 2023
Prop Design of Zhang Yimou’s film To Live
For my Chinese Language and Literature major, I translated scenes from the Chinese film To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou. Then for my Theatre Arts capstone project, I decided make significant props from the film, adapted to the stage. I chose the Chinese shadow puppets, a chest, and dumplings. At the end of my project, I did a presentation to my professors and classmates about the significance of each prop and how I made them.
Chinese Shadow Puppets:
These puppets serve as a representation of traditional Chinese culture. Throughout the film, artifacts representing China’s history are continuously destroyed, yet these puppets remain and even financially support the main character and his family. While these puppets were initially a means of support, they end up threatening the family for not supporting the communist revolution. And so, near the end of the film, in the final wave of communist modernization that gets rid of every traditional artifact, they are burned by the main character as an act of survival.
The Chest:
The chest is the vessel that contained and protected the puppets throughout the film. At one point, it was almost broken down to have to rivets smelted into steel, but it still survived. Unlike the puppets, the chest makes it to the end of the film, and is used as a bed for a family of baby chicks. It represents the old, traditional China can offer protection to a new generation of Chinese citizens.
Dumplings:
Food plays a crucial role in the film because the main family (along with most other Chinese people) were under constant threat of starvation. Dumplings in particular, are significant to the young son. The day of his premature death, he does not get to eat his treasured dumplings. And at his funeral, his mother offers him a new batch of dumplings, so that he won’t be hungry in the afterlife.
