1. Lung-ti (cage bottom) Play Phase: This was the earliest form of glove puppetry; it was taught and performed by the masters in the T'ang-shan area in mainland China. Troupes brought it as a form of family heritage when they traveled from the mainland to Taiwan.

     2. Pei-kuan Play Phase: The Pei-kuan puppet show was developed around the years of Kuang-shu in the Ch'ing dynasty, which was also the period when glove puppetry began to localize. Pei-kuan music was at the height of its popularity at that time, and was therefore incorporated into performances of glove puppetry. Pei-kuan music is characterized by a high pitch and distinct beat, which led puppet shows to various innovations in performance techniques. Acrobatics, and skills like window-jumping, stage movement, and fighting were devised and sometimes peculiar animals were put on stage to attract additional attention.

     3. Chinese Classical Novels Phase: Around 1911, the audiences of puppet shows became interested in episodes from historical novels such as San-Kwo Yien-Yi (The History of Three Nations), and Feng-shien Bang (The List of Sanctified Gods). In an attempt to maintain interest on the part of these audiences, puppeteers utilized these favored plots in puppet shows. Popular stories of historical judicial judges like P'eng-Kung An (Records of Peng-Kung's Court of Law), Shi-Kung An (Records of Shi-Kung's Court of Law), were seen as a distinct form of puppet play and were called "Kung-an Plays"(Court Record Plays).

     4. Chien-hsia (Chivalrous Heroes) Play Phase: In the 1920s, legends of chivalrous heroes become one of the dominant themes for puppet shows. Leading roles were religious characters, including Buddhists and Taoists; they usually stood for the righteous party and helped upright officials defeat social vices and eliminate scoundrels. During this phase, the music for glove puppet shows in southern Taiwan was a mixture of Pei-kuan, Nan-kuan, and Chao (a Chinese music form) melodies. In northern Taiwan most puppet shows still used Pei-kuan music, except for LEE Tian-lu's troupe, Yi Wan Ran, which to this day continues to be one of the most famous and popular puppet troupes on the island.

     5. Japanese Conformity Policy Phase: At the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War on July 7th, 1937, Japanese governors in Taiwan implemented a policy of national conformity, and banned performance troupes from performing historical Chinese stories and prohibited them from using the Mandarin and Taiwanese languages in their plays. During this time, puppet shows exhibiting Japanese traditions emerged, and there were seven troupes grouped as the Yen-jiu Ting-shen Team, (Chinese Opera Troupes of Valor) with performances completely focusing on plots advocating the Japanese samurai spirit. In 1944, while losing in the war in the Pacific, the Japanese organized puppet show troupes into the Association of Mobile Entertainment, which served to spread political propaganda for the Japan government.

     6. Anti-Communism & Anti-Soviet phase: In early 1951, the Chinese KMT party, with the aim of instilling anti-communism and anti-Soviet consciousness into the public, organized some puppetry troupes as "patriotic troupes." Yet the puppet show in this period was generally considered to have little influence on the development of the later glove puppet show after Taiwan Rehabilitation. That was because troupes were perfunctory in abiding by government policies, only adding a couple of political slogans in performances to satisfy the requirements.

     7. Chin-kuang [Gold and Light] Puppet Show Phase: Lee Tian-lu produced Three Hundred Years of the Ch'ing Dynasty in 1948, a play about the Shao-lin (a Buddhist monastery famous for its pugilistic monks) disciples including Hung Hsi-kuan and Fang Shih-yu, who rebuilt the great Shao-lin temple three times. The play turned out to be a hit, and initiated the development of the Chin-kuang puppet show.

     8. Later, Chung Jen-shiang and Chung Jen-pi's Hsin-hsing Ke Troupe in Hsi Lo, a town in central Taiwan, used the music of western movies in place of traditional gong-and-drum accompaniment, and employed the effects of colorful, radiant lighting, and rockets to create a brilliant backdrop for the shows. They also used concrete settings such as a three-floored palace, antique architecture with natural landscaping, natural rocks and caves, etc., in place of a traditional small-sized, wood-carved stage. In the town of Hu Wei in southern Taiwan, Huang Chun-hsiung's Wu-Chou Yuan troupe even used enlarged puppets.

     Chin-kuang puppet shows were also called "Chin-kuang Plays," for in such plays most of the characters were skilled in kung fu, or were hermits with mystical powers like the "Chin-kuang" body shield. Every time these characters appeared, they were surrounded by brilliant, wavering rays of light that represented radiance emanating from their bodies. Moreover, characters with more advanced kung fu skills and greater powers were shrouded with rainbow-like auras, and no matter how many times they got killed, they always re-emerged with new life and mightier powers and even became invincible. Chin-kuang plays flourished between 1954 and 1965.

In the past, for TV, Huang Churn-hsiung integrated the various regional pronunciations of Taiwanese, creating his own personal dialect that transcended geographic boundaries. Now Wen-cheh is trying to break through the prejudices many young people feel about Taiwanese dialect. Traditionally, budaixi used a combination of Beijing and the Taiwan dialects, with each role having its specific linguistic form, some using vernacular, some using classical Chinese. But in his voicings Wen-cheh creates a language mode for each role. The hero speaks in the most highly literary form; his pronouncements are virtually poetry. But minor comical characters use the slang of contemporary youth, and no terminology is out of bounds. Indeed, in usage Huang has even created a kind of "Mandarinized Taiwanese." Thus some terms from Mandarin are not translated into Taiwanese according to their meaning, but simply have their written characters from Mandarin pronounced in the Taiwanese dialect. Other times, Taiwanese terms come out in Mandarin. Though many traditionalists are critical of this, these terms are now tripping off the tongues of young people. 

Here is a short movie called "Wu Sung Da Hu":

      It is said that the traditional qualities of refinement are lacking in the movements of the puppets and elegance in puppet design. It is also said that the dialogue is too modern and idiomatic, and that the plots are filled with magic powers and feats too ridiculous to be credible. Thus did traditionalists- who felt they were being hurt by the vulgarization of their art form-attack the "reformers" of the "flashy budaixi" school. But now many realize that, even if there were no jinguang puppet theater, traditional budaixi would still be in crisis. Scholars and traditionalists are looking at "flashy budaixi" in a different light, placing traditional and innovative forms in the same genre. Puppet master Li Tien-lu notes that modern budaixi grew out of traditional budaixi, just as its innovations will be tomorrow's traditions. Just as budaixi shifted from nanguan music to beiguan in the past, so high-tech budaixi is moving toward science fiction. This is a question of progressive stages and different approaches, and there is no conflict amongst them.
 

     Huang Hai-dai changed the tradition of basing puppet theater on old tales of crime, instead developing swordsman dramas based on folk literature. Huang Churn-hsiung was the founder of "flashy budaixi." And the Huang brothers have turned puppets into a corporate enterprise. "You can't destroy tradition, but you've also got to stay ahead of the modern audience," says Huang Hai-dai, praising both old and new. The grandfather of the group feels that traditional puppet theater is rich in meaning, and it is a shame no one wants to learn it today. But, he also has praise for high-tech special effects that have light rays blasting out of the characters' hands, calling them electrifying and progressive. The 97-year-old doyen concludes: "We live in the nuclear age, you have to be able to use technology." As for the future of budaixi, Grandfather thinks the best mix would be "two parts tradition, eight parts modernization." So long as the influence of the classics is present throughout, there's no need for the form to stagnate within any particular parameters. By holding fast to traditional secrets and yet accepting a variety of innovations, the fun will never stop.