Educational  Toolkit

Shadow Play with Chinese Festivals



 
    Reintroducing Chinese shadow puppetry through festival storytelling, family-centered play, and hands-on making.




Stage & Components
Foldable stage, shadow puppets, rods, and storage structure.
Story Materials
Festival booklets guide reading, making, and performance.
Editorial System Bilingual layouts for stories, characters, cultural notes, and performance scripts.
Early PrototypeStructure, storage, and performance setup.
Development
Sketches, material tests, and structural studies.

Toolkit Overview
Learning Through Performance  
      Shadow Play with Chinese Festivals reimagines traditional Chinese shadow puppetry as a contemporary, family-centered learning experience. Designed for children ages 3–7 and their parents, the toolkit brings cultural storytelling into the home through an assembled stage, shadow puppets, festival-based story materials, and guided activities.   

      Centered on four traditional Chinese festivals—Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Dongzhi. The project uses seasonal narratives, symbolic imagery, Chinese vocabulary, and pinyin cues to support cultural learning through play. By combining assembly, operation, and performance, the toolkit shifts cultural education from passive reading to hands-on participation, creating a screen-free experience where parents and children can learn, make, and perform together.

Credit
Design, illustration, typography, and product design by Melody Su
© 2026 Melody Su