PULLING THE STRINGS

An exhibition in Beijing features more than 300 puppets made by members of the Xu family from Zhangzhou through seven generations. Lin Qi reports.

For more than two centuries, the Xu family in Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian province, have been passing down one skill - carving a variety of faces on small pieces of camphor wood.

These heads are then added to limbs, and the complete pieces are then dressed up in delicately woven outfits.