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Fusion Wayang Kulit
Fusion Wayang Kulit is a group whose uses the traditional puppetry form of Wayang Kulit to incorporate famous pop-culture sci-fi figures to conserve the art form and interest a younger demographic. In their efforts, they have generated interest internationally which lead to media coverage in the forms of interviews, magazines, and articles. The team’s goal is to keep the traditional ancient medium of Wayang Kulit relevant and alive in a way that combines modern technology and modern fashions. The team has done shows internationally. Some notable places they performed was in Austria, Germnay, and in Guangdong, China. Fusion Wayang has received featured articles in magazines like Star Wars Ins Fusion Wayang Kulit is a group whose uses the traditional puppetry form of Wayang Kulit to incorporate famous pop-culture sci-fi figures to conserve the art form and interest a younger demographic. Fusion Wayang has received featured articles in magazines like Star Wars Insider, The Wall Street Journal, and Nikkei. Asia, won awards, and been interviewed across news channels.

Adapting Wayang Kulit to suit more modern audiences is common, other groups have incorporating elements like Hip-Hop. With this trend the group navigates presenting in a modern way while honoring the traditions of this art form’s legacy. Another way they have adapted this puppetry form is by shortening the run time of performances from around 6-12 hours to, at most, an hour and a half. Chuo’s specific ambition is to combine technology with tradition by projecting onto the puppet screen digital backgrounds, using modern lighting, and sound modifications. Their intentions to bring greater recognition to a diverse audience, in age, socioeconomic, and pop-culture fans.

Inspiration
In 2012, Tintoy Chuo, a character designer, and Take Huat, an art director, were invited to exhibit at an art show. Desiring to make their exhibition unique, they decided to incorporate sci-fi characters into a traditional shadow puppet. While coming up with ideas, the two ask themselves “What if we combine two totally different elements into one?” Combining Western and Eastern elements gives the team a unique base to work with and evolve. To begin, the team drew inspiration from a book, “Shadow Play: Malay Traditional Theatre” and used it to model characters after their parallel in Star Wars. For example, the character Darth Vader was modeled off a traditional character in Malaysian shadow theatre who was an evil king. Similarly, Rama, the hero figure in the story, was used as a guide for creating Luke Skywalker. Some elements are blended with traditional Malaysian Wayang Kulit symbolism, like how Darth Vader has fangs which denote evil or how Skywalker has feather designs, a typical Malaysian motif. They also used skeletons as the basis for Storm Trooper characters and a jokester for C 3PO. Since R2D2 is a robot there were no characters to mirror it in Malaysian stories; therefore, Chuo drew inspiration from architecture, especially the domed edifices.

Drawing on their mutual love of Sci-fi pop culture they started their journey to create Fusion Wayang Kulit. Using Star Wars allows this art form to relate to at least two generations, and expands the audience for Wayang Kulit. The Malaysian Wayang Kulit style of puppets was specifically chosen for its sturdy design and how the color of the characters is visible through the screens. To Chuo and Huat, creativity is not necessarily dictated by gender, race, or age, which draws on the themes of globalism and hybridity in their art. The team created characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, among others in the Star Wars universe (Khor, 2019). Each Star Wars puppet stands on a space ship that coordinates with their identity. Other puppets they made feature action figures like Ironman, Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman.

The Group Members
His creations have won awards in several contests for his animations, like in Japan TBS's 13th DigiCon6, and Malaysia's MDeC's 2009 IPCC. Chuo has worker internationally on animation projects, as well as, created designs for international chains. Chuo has contributed to game designs for augment reality and has internationally known works.

Take Huat Teh is a senior art director. Huat Teh has skills in several art forms such as sculpting, painting, designing, and photography (Huat Teh, 2021). As someone who enjoys Sci-fi, he became involved as a co-founder in Fusion Wayang Kulit (Huat Teh, 2017).

Pak Dain is a dalang, or puppet master, and is the Wayang Kulit expert on the team. He has his own small gallery and continues to promote this Malaysian form of puppetry.

Process
According to Chuo, the character design and creation process would, at its most efficient, take around three weeks. Firstly, Chuo would begin by developing ways the character could be different from the original design and then decide what the characters needs to be recognizable. Frequently, the team will base their creations off an existing Wayang Kulit character that embodies similar themes. Also, they have created celebrity puppets, like Ed Sheeran.