While evolving from outdoor performances in villages and city neighborhoods to television and the internet, budaixi has maintained its popularity.  Puppet theater’s rich history throughout Asia is well known. China boasts several styles of puppetry dating back to the Han dynasty. These include marionette puppetry in which the action is controlled from above by strings,…

As is true for all island nations, Taiwan’s history and character have been shaped by the surrounding ocean. The ancestors of its indigenous people crossed the sea more than four millennia ago. From the 1600s onward, large numbers of migrants sailed from the Chinese mainland and settled on Taiwan’s western lowlands. Nowadays Taiwanese are far…