Chinese puppetry spread to the outside world during the Tang and Song dynasties and spread even wider in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Soon after the 1911 Revolution, Chinese puppeteers made a performance tour of Singapore, Penang and Luzon. In the 1920s and 1930s, Hebei shoulder-pole puppet plays made their appearances in japan,the Soviet Union and Southeast Asia.

The government began sending puppet troupes abroad in the 1950s. In 1956,the China Puppet and Shadow Play Troupe, consisting of puppeteers from Beijing Fujian and jiangri, performed in eastern Europe. Their rod, string and glove puppet shows of Mistress Cleven The Cowboy and the Countly Girl Daming Prefecture,Lei Wanchun Fights with the Tiger and Marrying by Force won acclaim from the local audiences there. in the 1960s, Chinese puppeteers took part in the Second International Puppet Festival and won gold and silver medals for five items. Since then, most performances abroad were independently organized by troupes from various provinces and municipalities.

In the early 1950s, the Ministry of Culture began preparations for the establishment of the China Puppet Troupe based on the Liaoxi Cultural Ensemble, which, thanks to the concern of the late Premier Zhou Enlai, was officially inaugUrated in Beijing in May 1955. WU Cun, one of China's Outstanding film directors in the 1930s, was named director of the troupe. Yu Suoya,a famous cartoonist and Cai Wanrong a celebrated xylographer, were invited to work as art director and puppet designer respectively.

The long-held goal of the China Puppet Troupe is to inherit and develop Chinese culture, learn from other countries and to serve the people, especially young people. It often sends people to learn from veteran puppeteers in other areas, or othetwise invites them to Beijing to pass on their skills. It broke free from the practice of performing in the style of Chinese opera and introduced modern music and dance into puppetry. It also made great efforts to collate modern plays, historical plays, fairy tales, myths, fables and folk stories and adapt them for puppet shows. over the past 40 years, the troupe has created and staged more than 200 new plays, of which The Story of the Horse-Head the, old Lin and YoungLin and Cruiser Qiqihave been made into films and Monkey King Makes Havoc in Heaven, The Little Bell and The Art of Chinese Pupetry have been adapted for telefilm.

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