TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Famed Taiwanese master puppeteer Vincent Huang (黃文擇) passed away on Sunday (June 12) at the age of 65.

Huang's uncle and former Legislator Huang Feng-shih (黃逢時) that evening confirmed with CNA that the artist had died from an illness, but said the detailed cause of death is not yet clear. Huang had recently been listed as a candidate for the Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2022 Taipei Film Festival, with the winner to be announced on July 9.

Huang was born on July 1, 1956, in Huwei Township in Yunlin County, and was the third generation of the Huang Hai-tai (黃海岱) puppet show family. Huang and his eldest brother Chris Huang (黃強華) founded Pili International Multimedia which produces the "Pili" glove puppetry TV show, which started in 1984, as well as many films.

(CNA photo)

Over a career that spanned 30-plus years, Huang voiced more than 3,000 characters and was called the "Eight Pitch Genius" with the ability to voice 30 to 40 characters in one play. In an interview in November, he said that he had spent 10 months doing voice work for the film "Su Huan-Jen" (素還真), including a stretch of three days and three nights without sleeping.

Huang made many contributions to the preservation and development of puppetry in Taiwan. He emphasized that puppetry is integral to Taiwanese culture and one of the most important traditional arts in Yunlin County.

Over his career, Huang introduced modern technologies such as video production and computer animation into this traditional art and opened up new horizons for this craft and culture. The "Pili" (霹靂) glove puppetry TV show set a record of more than 3.5 million viewers and has been broadcast on the Disney Channel and Netflix helping Taiwanese puppetry expand to the outside world.

(Facebook, Su Huan-Jen photo)