From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Chinese leather silhonette was introduced to Indonesia, Malaysia and other islands in Southeast Asia, and then it moved west, concurrently with the expedition of the Mongolian army, to Persian in central Asia, Turkey in west Asia and Egypt in northern Africa. From the 17th century, Western Catholic missionaries took it to Italy, Germany and France. French King Louis the 14th at once watched a shadow show. in the Versailles. In 1774, German poet Goethe recommended Chinese leather silhouette show at William exposition, and directed a shadow show on a German story in 1781. Shadow show was then known as Chinese shadow show.
The rapid development of modern economy in urban and rural areas, coupled with the growing influence of television and film culture, traditionaI leather silhouette is almost precipitating into distinction nationwide except in a few regions in eastern Gansu and Liaoning Province. Now only some 200 leather silhouette troupes are still around, down from over 1000 nationwide in the 1980s.
