Princeton's Chinese Shadow Puppetry Collection now ONLINE!

Thanks to Mary Hirsch for the update!:

Princeton University Online Catalog of Shadow Figures

The Princeton University East Asian Library has just released a fully searchable, image-rich, free online catalog of its collection of Chinese shadow figures.  The catalog includes photographs of each of the over 2,000 items in the collection, along with searchable categories and descriptions.  The catalog can be accessed at:

http://gest.princeton.edu/shadowfigures.php

Princeton's collection of shadow figures was acquired in the late 1920s for Guion Moore Gest, the founder of the Gest Collection.  They are made in the Luanzhou 灤州 or Leting 樂亭 style popular in northeast China, and appear to date from the last years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) or the early years of the Republican Period (1912-1949).  In 2006, Mary E. Hirsch, a scholar of Chinese shadow theater, undertook the cataloging and re-housing of the collection. 

With this catalog, users can easily find specific items in the collection, or view all of the items in a particular category or with particular characteristics.  Princeton's collection will now be accessible to interested scholars the world over, free of charge.