Teochew Puppet And Opera House compiles the stories from a retired Teochew-opera actress and her enthusiastic for the Teochew culture, together with the exhibition of her costumes and the puppets for opera performance. You must not miss to go through the history of Teochew opera in Malaysia, to witness the valuable piece of an aged hand-copied script, or to experience the playing of the opera puppets. You are welcomed to tell us your own story of your Teochew culture experience here.

In Teochew dialect, Steel-Rod Puppet also known as [Pi Hou, ] literally translated as ‘skinny monkey’, or [Zhi Ying], literally translated as ‘the shadow of paper‘. The Steel-Rod puppet show is a unique art performance found in the Teochew region. The art have its origin lies in the shadow puppet, which was made of paper and performed in a 2D presentation. Later on, the 2D shadow puppet presentation was improved and evolved became a 3D presentation. The Steel Rod Puppet show was inspired by the 3D presentation and this is the reason for the art have preserved characteristics of the shadow puppet.

For the puppets did not possess the human emotional property, they are taken as a sacred icon, which could help human to get rid of the evil influences from the nature. Till to the date, the thought of the sacred puppet can be traced, by witnessing the Puppet show is played before the performance of the Teochew opera in the most of the religious occasion. In the past, the puppet show is lead only by the men, and women are prohibited from performing the art. It was thought that the puppet performance by the woman would provoke the anger of the deities. However, along with the concepts evolution in the opened society, there are more and more women participate in the puppet performance nowadays.