The following article is an introduction to a cartoon show presented in the form of puppets. This cartoon show is enjoyed by many people (including me and my family), and I am going to share it with you today.
Ep.1: 卖树影（Selling Tree Shadows）
In this series, there is a character named “阿凡提”, Avanti in English. He is very popular in town and helps people in trouble. Whenever you see him, he always has his pet donkey with him. A person that’s usually very against Avanti is a round guy called “bayilaoye” in Chinese(but you can call him anything you want since I don’t know his English name), who is very rich and finds every single way to make his money worth and not to lose it. The first episode began something like this:
Act 1:
Setting: A hot summer day at Bayilaoye’s house
People and kids sit underneath the tree shade of the tree that Bayilaoye owns. (Front Yard)
One person plays sad music with his ukulele
Another person: It’s so hot!
Other person: Yeah
People start to chat under the shade of Bayilaoye’s front yard tree.
Bayilaoye (counting his gold coins with his wife): 195, 196,
Bayilaoye’s wife: 197,198
Bayilaoye: What is that sound?
(Bayilaoye walks out of his house to find that a group of people were sitting under his tree)
Bayilaoye: What are you guys doing here?!
Person: We’re just chilling under your tree, is there anything wrong?
Bayilaoye: Of course there’s something wrong! You are sitting under My tree! Go get your own tree! This tree is mine!
Other Person: But sir, we live in the town as you. We’re not foreign people. Just let us stay for a while, it’s so hot today. Please?
Bayilaoye: What part of “no” do you not understand?! I don’t care if I live with you, I don’t care if it’s hot out, JUST GET OUT OF MY YARD!!!
(Avanti strolls by on his donkey)
Avanti: Ey, what’s with all the commotion?
Bayilaoye: These nasty people are in MY yard, sitting under MY tree, and the tree shadow is even mine!
Kid: Yeah, but sharing is caring!
Bayilaoye: You guys are so annoying! How about this, if you ARE going to stay in MY tree shadow, then you have to cough up the money for it.
(People talk amongst themselves that they have to pay Bayilaoye just to stay under his tree)
(Avanti thinks about the situation)
Avanti: Hey, Bayilaoye, how about I buy the tree’s shadow from you?
Bayilaoye: Oh yeah. Okay. But it’s gonna cost you 10 gold coins.
Avanti: Sure.
(Bayilaoye’s wife comes out and whispers in Bayilaoye’s ear to kick up the price)
Bayilaoye: Um, Avanti, since our tree shadow is cooler than others, then I’ll raise the price up to 20 gold coins.
(People gasp in shock that Bayilaoye is selling a simple shadow for 20 gold coins! They could buy 20 pieces of bread with that! Are selling shadows even a thing?)
Avanti: No problem.
(Seeing at how good Avanti is taking this price, Bayilaoye’s wife tells Bayilaoye to raise the price again)
Bayilaoye: Avanti, because this tree shadow is a family history for us, how about you take the shadow and I take that whole bag worth of gold coins for it? Eh?
Avanti: Deal.
(Both men went to see the businessman to sign a contract about Bayilaoye handing over his tree shadow for a bag of gold coins)
(Avanti handed over a bag of gold coins. Bayilaoye, seeing that he earned a whole bag of gold coins for a shadow, he started to laugh with his wife and go inside the house)
Avanti to the people: Guys, problem solved. I’m going to get some fruit here for us to enjoy.
Act 2:
Setting: Bayilaoye’s front door
A few hours passed, Bayilaoye returns to his house in the evening after running an errand and sees that the tree shadow has grown and the people sitting there are blocking his front door.
Act 2 continued…
Bayilaoye: Oi! You guys are blocking the entry to my house! Move!
Avanti: But sir, we are just chilling under my tree shadow that I purchased from you. We have done nothing wrong.
Bayilaoye: Fine. If you aren’t gonna move, then I will just have to go through you guys.
(Bayilaoye moves his leg towards the tree shadow)
Avanti: Watch it, if you even step a toe into my shadow, then you have to pay money.
Kids on the side watch the conversation between Bayilaoye and Avanti, and say: Yeah, you have to pay money if you touch Avanti’s shadow!
(Bayilaoye decides to climb over the wall surrounding his house. He landed with a thud on the other side and everybody laughed. )
After a while, Bayilaoye finds that letting Avanti have control over his tree shadow isn’t a good thing. So he plans to chop the tree down.
(Bayilaoye walks over to the tree, holding an axe, and starts to chop the tree)
Avanti: My dear Bayilaoye, what are you doing?
Bayilaoye, not looking away from the tree: I am going to chop down the tree, so that you guys can leave. The tree’s still mine, so I can chop it down.
Avanti: Just remember, I brought the shadow from you, so if even one millimeter of my shadow has been destroyed, then you have to pay for the damage.
Kids: Yeah, you would have to pay for your destruction.
(Bayilaoye stops chopping and looks toward Avanti)
Bayilaoye: Can you cancel our deal? My life has been harder with you guys here.
Avanti: Sorry, friend. We’ve signed a contract saying that the shadow’s now mine.
(Avanti takes out the contract and shows it to Bayilaoye)
Bayilaoye: Can I buy it back though?
Avanti: Sure.
Bayilaoye: How much?
Avanti: It’ll cost you two bags of gold coins.
Bayilaoye: But you only paid me one bag in the morning. Why did you double the cost?
Avanti: That’s because the shadow has grown a lot since then. One bag was the price in the morning, and 2 bags for the evening one.
Bayilaoye sighs: Fine.
(Bayilaoye handed over 2 bags of gold coins and the people left, including Avanti)
Act 3:
Setting: The outside of Bayilaoye’s house, at night.
The tree’s shadow now hovers above Bayilaoye's house, Avanti and the people are dancing on Bayilaoye’s roof，The kids are driving sheep and donkeys inside Bayilaoye’s house.
Bayilaoye shouts: What do you think you’re doing?!?!
Avanti: Dear friend, I am just having a wonderful party in my tree shadow up here. I invited lots of people, and animals, see? You wanna join?
Bayilaoye: What the heck, Avanti! I thought I already bought the shadow back for double the price?
Avanti: Yeah you did, but you bought the evening one. The one I am enjoying is the one after the sun sets.
(Donkeys roam in Bayilaoye’s house so fast that Bayilaoye can’t even process it. The sheeps are opening the window with their heads, and whenever Bayilaoye tries to close it again, another window is opened. Bayilaoye’s wife tries to hide in their treasure box, but she comes out because the space around the box is extremely cramped due to the amount of donkeys inside the room )
Bayilaoye: Avanti! Can you please stop this party? My wife and I have to sleep! Can I buy this night shadow too?
Avanti: No. I can’t bear to sell it. But if you want peace, people won’t need to pay back the money they borrowed from you.
Bayilaoye: No way I’m gonna do that!
Avanti: Alright, the party must go on then.
(Bayilaoye thinks about it, since he lost a whole bag of gold coins and now he won’t be able to get the money back people borrowed from him. But anything to get rid of this chaos!)
Bayilaoye: Fine! I accept this condition!
Avanti: Okay. Guys, the party’s over. Bring back the donkeys and sheep.
(The people and animals leave Bayilaoye’s house, leaving Bayilaoye’s house in total destruction)
Avanti leaves on his donkey, and off to another place he goes.
The End
And there you go! Hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you like it, more episodes are coming up!