In early winter, the warmth of the border between Jiangxi and Zhejiang blends together. Recently, at the 2025 "Three Mountains" cultural and artistic exchange event held in Yushan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, the "Three Mountains Gathering Charm · Inter provincial Tide Collection" agricultural special cultural and creative intangible cultural heritage product market attracted special attention. The characteristic products and intangible cultural heritage skills from Yushan, Jiangxi Province, Changshan, and Jiangshan, Zhejiang Province complemented each other, outlining a vivid picture of inter provincial cooperation and cultural integration. Zheng Sansun, the sixth generation representative inheritor of the Yushan String Puppet Show, a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage project in Jiangxi Province, flipped his fingertips and pulled the puppets passed down from the Ming Dynasty, performing the story of Lv Dongbin and Bai Mudan in front of the screen, causing cheers from the audience. This scene is a true portrayal of Yushan County using culture as a link to promote the protection of intangible cultural heritage and regional coordinated development. Yushan puppetry, formerly known as "Yushan Cave puppetry", originated in the Song Dynasty and has a history of over a thousand years. It is not only a living fossil of the integration of northern and southern opera, but also an important symbol on the cultural corridor of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Anhui. In 2010, this ancient technique was listed as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage in Jiangxi Province. As the sixth generation descendant of the family, Zheng Sansun started learning from his father at the age of ten and traveled around the countryside. He is still able to fully perform six major plays to this day. His handmade puppet has hidden mechanisms in its chin and eyes, with a single line of traction and vivid movements of its eyebrows and eyes. The 'life' of puppets lies in the 'strings'. ”Zheng Sansun said. During the performance, he holds the puppet board with his left hand to control his body movements, and uses four fingers of his right hand to hang strings and direct his hands and feet. At the same time, he recites and sings aloud, multitasking and combining the puppet into one. The Yuan Dynasty literati Bei Qiong once praised in his poem "Yushan Cave Puppet Song": "The Yushan Cave puppets are unparalleled in the world, and their ups and downs are all natural mechanisms." This shows the profound artistic appeal of their art. Like many traditional crafts, puppetry also faced the dilemma of inheritance. There is no stable income to do this, and young people are unwilling to learn opera for a long time, "Zheng Sanjun said frankly. The singing style of the opera is mainly Gan opera, and there were originally more than 200 types of musical instruments, but now most of them are lost, and there are fewer and fewer plays that can be fully performed. Faced with challenges, Yushan County has not turned intangible cultural heritage into "museum art". In recent years, Yushan has taken "intangible cultural heritage into schools" as a starting point, organizing inheritors to go deep into the school, teaching hand in hand, writing school-based textbooks, and forming clubs, allowing children to get close to traditional culture from an early age. Zheng Sansun also walked into the classroom, teaching children how to string and speak out. Under his guidance, the children actively participated: "Grandpa Zheng, I also want to try it! Sun Dasheng, the puppeteer of puppetry, can be a true spirit!" At the same time, Yushan actively promoted the integration of intangible cultural heritage into rural revitalization and regional cooperation. The "Three Mountains" cultural and artistic exchange activities, which began in 1986, have expanded from artistic performances to a comprehensive cooperation mechanism covering industries, governance, and people's livelihoods. In recent years, the Yushan Puppet Show has demonstrated not only a skill, but also the determination to connect the mountains and rivers of the three regions, promote cultural exchange, and achieve mutual prosperity. From cultural and artistic linkage to industrial co prosperity, from governance coordination to public transportation interconnection, the 40 year "Three Mountains" agreement has injected new vitality into intangible cultural heritage projects such as Yushan Puppet Show. Nowadays, Yushan has 17 intangible cultural heritage projects. Through exploring multiple paths such as "culture+tourism" and "intangible cultural heritage+education", the ancient string puppet show is shining brightly in the countryside. In front of Zheng Sansun's stage, there are still children holding their cheeks and staring, and villagers singing softly - as long as there is an audience, the performance is meaningful. And Yushan, the "eastern gateway of Jiangxi", is using culture as a pen to paint a moving picture of "the rebirth of ancient art and the shared beauty of urban and rural areas" on the edge of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. (New Society)