Hua Hua Zhang

Art Form(s):

Theater

Artist Statement

From my experience and studies as a puppet artist in both China and 
America, I have understood puppetry to be a multifaceted art form. 
Puppetry has endless potential for artistic expression to all ages and 
backgrounds. It is my dream and mission to use our performance, workshop and residency programs to broaden our students’ perspectives and open their hearts, by sharing, appreciating, understanding and embracing the many differences, and mostly the similarities, among our cultures so that we can all find each other in peace.

Artist Bio

Hua Hua Zhang was born in Beijing, China where she studied as a performer in the classical art of Chinese puppetry. She has received many awards for her performance. In 1996, Hua Hua came to the United States and earned a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in the Puppet Arts program of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) in 2000. She founded her company, Visual Expressions, in 2002. The company is committed to using Asian and Western puppet art to explore universal themes and ideas through visual cross–cultural expression using theatrical performances and educational programs.

Recent years of her artworks:

• Create a main character puppet of Cio Cio San for Madame Butterfly for Opera Philadelphia 2024
• ’Tian Wen – Heavenly Questions for Modern Times’
• ‘White Nights’
• ‘Dream of Land’
• ‘Long Sleeve Woman’
• She was featured as a puppet artist to perform at La MaMa Experimental Theatre New York
• Taiwan Lizé Puppet Festival
• Asian Arts Initiative
• Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia.

Awards include:

•  ‘Rocky Awards’ from Dance USA, Philadelphia in 2014
• ‘Best Creativity’ for ‘Butterfly Dreams’ at the World Puppet Festival in China, 2012
• ‘New Works of Live Puppet Theater’ from Jim Henson Foundation.

Hua Hua is an educator. As guest artist, she teaches at UCONN, the Eugene O’Neill National Puppet Conference and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is on the roster of teaching artists in Pennsylvania Council in Art Education. She received the Distinguished Service Award from NJ Governor’s Awards in Art Education in 2019 and Arts Champion Award Hero in the Arts from YANJ&PA 2020.