Home > Our Learning Progress > DIY Glove Puppetry Puppets in My Puppets > Interviewing the Establisher Mr. Cai



As its name suggests, My Puppets offers a pretty complete display on Glove Puppetry's origin, development, manufacturing operation, and finished products and it also offers DIY courses. It is similar to a Glove Puppetry tourist factory which is just like the home of the puppets. Thus, we were interested to know the origin of My Puppets and the hardship it had been facing throughout the course. We interviewed the founder of My Puppets Creative and Cultural Park – Cai Su Lan. The following is the compilation of the interview:



I used to be a costume designer. I designed clothes for garment companies. My husband was a glove puppet sculptor, so we decided to combine our specialties to make glove puppets – he took charge of sculpting the heads and I, making their clothes and head ornaments. We did not need anyone else. We could do it on our own, and after many years, we had built economic foundations.

But because the puppets needed to be handmade, and it required exquisite handicraft and it was time-consuming, so we could not produce them in a large number, which was an impediment we faced in the course of the development. To overcome the difficulty, we spent half a year to find a solution to successfully build molds using glass fibers, which was an innovation. It shortened the amount of time it took to make puppets and it also reduced the produce cost, so that raised the number of the puppets made. In terms of Glove Puppetry production and selling, this is truly a breakthrough.

Since I was young, Glove Puppetry had been accompanying me, and I had a dream to found My Puppets. I wanted to show more people the culture of Glove Puppetry and the puppets' produce process. I also wanted them to be able to join us making puppets and having a chance to watch the performances. I worked hard to realize the dream with my children and family. It took us a dozen of years to finally make it and found My Puppets Cultural and Creative Park. The process was wobbly, but I enjoy it.



Glove Puppetry is an industry. If there are temples and religious carnivals, people want to appreciate gods, there are Glove Puppetry performances. If the religious culture continues, then Glove Puppetry continues.

My Puppets had transformed from the original puppets making to arts collecting and DIY courses. Stepping into educational and artistic realm had reduced the risk Glove Puppetry development is facing, so we are barely affected. We believe that if everyone give a hand in passing on Glove Puppetry, it is going to live on.