On slow-season nights, villagers used to gather before a white cloth and an oil lamp as donkey-leather puppets sang and fought across a small screen — one performer voicing many roles, ‘telling a thousand years with one mouth, moving a million soldiers with two hands.’ Zhuanghe shadow puppetry is a branch of the Southern Liaoning school; its local accent and tales of loyalty and justice once travelled village to village. Though shows are rarer now, remaining artists teach young people, keeping the lamplight alive.