The painting from the Qing Dynasty depicts people watching a shadow play indoors.

Watching shadow plays

The closest thing to watching a film or television for entertainment during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. Folk artists manipulate puppets behind the screen, narrating stories and accompanyied by music. During the Qing Dynasty, shadow play art reached its peak, and was staged for each major occasion.

Shadow play was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006, and was added to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2011.