Watching shadow plays
The closest thing to watching a film or television for entertainment during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. Folk artists manipulate puppets behind the screen, narrating stories and accompanyied by music. During the Qing Dynasty, shadow play art reached its peak, and was staged for each major occasion.
Shadow play was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006, and was added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2011.
Playing diabolo
Diabolo is always made of wood or bamboo and is hollow in the center. By juggling diabolo on ropes, the high-speed rotating diabolo will make a sound.
Playing diabolo is a very interesting folk game, especially popular in North China. Through many changes, it has become an item in Chinese traditional acrobatics. Playing diabolo was also included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
Firecrackers
Firecrackers have a history of more than 2,000 years. It is said that there was a beast named Nian in ancient China, and to scare off the beast, people burnt bamboo joints to make it blast. After gunpowder was invented, it gradually replaced the bamboo joint cracker. Crackers are still set off during Spring Festival to symbolize auspiciousness.
