Chinese puppeteers develop the shadow play, a form of puppetry in which flat cutout figures are silhouetted against a translucent screen and manipulated with rods while the puppeteer intones the story to musical accompaniment.

Shadow puppetry originates during the Han Dynasty when one of the concubines of Emperor Wu of Han died from an illness.

The emperor was devastated, and he summoned his court officers to bring his beloved back to life.

The officers made a shape of the concubine using donkey leather.

Her joints were animated using eleven separate pieces of the leather, and adorned with painted clothes.

Using an oil lamp, they made her shadow move, bringing her back to life.