How Cowhide Invented Entertainment 🤯

[0:00]This is how the Chinese invented the most popular form of entertainment using cowhide. Because this 2000-year-old process started by scraping the wet hide thoroughly until it's paper thin. Which is super important, as light needs to be able to pass through it. As after sanding down the skin with rough grass, it becomes translucent, creating a natural light filter. So she carves into it using over 30 different chisels to create Piying, which are small characters that will soon be used as shadows. But they're completely useless if not colored, so this part has to be done strategically as it will fully activate them later on. Because after drying overnight, the figures are placed behind a screen and lit from behind, creating the world's first ever form of animation.