Return of Madam snake

An ancient fairy tale gets a new airing in widely different formats, Deng Zhangyu reports.

The Chinese fairy tale figure Madam White Snake is back again, this time in two very different guises. The first is in the time-honored way in which audiences are used to seeing it, and the other in a very contemporary form.

The first version sticks rigidly to the well-known folktale the "Legend of the White Snake", vividly presented on a scroll 30 meters long featuring more than 140 shadow puppets dating back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).