Traditional shadow figure is about 35 mm high, mostly made of cow skin (Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Yunnan), or donkey skin (Hebei, Inner Mongolia, northeast three provinces and Shandong), and painted goat skin (Zhejiang and Guangdong). In Jiangxi and Hunan, it is made with carved paper sandwiched with color fabric. Most leather silhouette artists were
experienced senior artists with specialties handed down in the family. They went through complicated process from leather selecting, processing, engraving, coloring and painting, to sewing and assembling. After that, they added a neck sheathe to insert wig to complete the 11 movable components (the head, the upper and lower shoulders, the upper body and the lower body, and two legs) before assembling them onto three bamboo sticks, one fixed and two movable, for the neck and two hands. Depending on the role, one figure could have as many as four sets of wigs. For a large show, with male, female, painted face and clown four categories of some 80 figures, it might have as many as four hundred wigs. In addition, they carried almost everything from tables and chairs; vehicles and horses; general's tent, carriage and boat; palace and chambers; Buddhist and Taoist temples, to the background stage arrangement for the sky, earth and water. With these costumes, they could put on some 100-200 different shows.
