Taiwanese Hand Puppet Show @ See-Join Puppet Theater Restaurant

Anyone have ever watch any puppet show before? This is my first time watching Taiwanese Hand Puppet Show @ See-Join Puppet Theater Restaurant. The outlook of the shop is kinda old and shabby..which makes me think its some kinda boring show...

See-Join Puppet Theater Restaurant

Some brief introduction about this restaurant:

See-Join Puppet Theater Restaurant was established in 1992 as the first theme restaurant that combines Taiwanese cuisine and the traditional theater together. You can enjoy the food and watch the performance of the hand puppet at the same time.

There are a few default schedules per day. Please check the website for more info.

(1) the first time 19:00～20:00 (Please arrive at 18:30 )
(2) the second time 12:00～13:00 (Please arrive at 11:30 )
(3) the third time 15:30～16:30 (Please arrive at 15:00 )

Our tour guide initially planned to arrange the 2nd slot which is 12PM to have our lunch there while enjoying the show, but due to unforeseen reasons, the master of the puppet show are not available at that slot. So, we went for the 3rd slot which is on 3.30PM. While waiting for the master of the puppet show performance to arrive, below are some of the snapshots of puppets in the restaurant.

Puppets on the front left side racks of the shop from entrance

More puppets on the back left side racks of the shop from entrance

There are more puppets on the upper right racks of the shop

There are puppets at the backstage too

There are some newspaper clippings on the table

Around 3.30PM, an elderly man which is the master came out to introduce the puppet show. He able to speak English, Mandarin, and Hokkien..but not Cantonese. He started of by teaching us a few movements using the hand puppet like how to clap, walk, bow etc by using small 30cm size puppet. A couple of us in the group including my youngest sister able to pick-up the hand movements and move gracefully with the 30cm size puppet provided to each of us. Ok...I'm kinda slow learner in all this..so I gave up in learning and busy taking photos and videos :-P

Then the master demonstrated the hand movements using a much bigger size puppet which is about 70cm tall. Looks pretty hard to move with so big size puppet now...

Master demonstrated with a 70cm male tall puppet

Now with a 70cm female tall puppet

Here are a few funny video clips during the session where the master trying to interact with us using the 70cm female puppet:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

More different performance videos by the master:

Performance #1:

Performance #2:

After that four people in our group were picked to go up stage to perform using the 70cm tall puppets:

Part 1 (1st Puppet):

Part 2 (2nd Puppet):

Part 3 (3rd Puppet):

Part 4 (4th Puppet):

Lastly..gangnam style performance..

Our tour group behind the scene:

Behind the scene..

How to get here?
MRT

In the "Taipei Railway Station" take "Bannan Line" to Zhong Xiao Xinsheng Station and transfer to Luzhou" line to "Songjiang Nanjing Station" and exit at gate 8 then walk to 5 minute to get to “See-Joint”.
‧Walking Direction‧

1. Turn right when exiting the gate, then turn right at the corner of Citibank.
2. Walk along "Nanjing E. Road", pass through " Yijiang St” and “Jilin Road", then turn right into Lane 41.
3. Walk for 70 meters and “See-Joint” is newly located in your left-hand side.

* Check here for the summary of my 2012 Taiwan trip itinerary.