Warsaw's Asia and Pacific Museum is hosting an exhibition of Chinese theater dolls entitled Warriors, Beauties and Demons.

Chinese puppet theater has assumed many guises during its fascinating thousand-year history. Classical Chinese operas revolving around war, politics, love and crime achieved a new and original form in puppet theater.

The puppets, including glove puppets, shadow puppets and marionettes, are a joy to look at with their variety and the precise workmanship and ingenuity of those who made them. There are even some intricately cut pi ying xi leather puppets among the 240 exhibits in the museum's Asian Gallery. There is also a set of 50 puppets from South China, marionettes from Hunan Province in southeast China, and single examples of different types.

The puppet collection occupies a special place at the Asia and Pacific Museum. There are now around 1,500 of them and, in addition to China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Uzbekistan are all represented.

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Warriors, Beauties and Demons-Chinese Puppet Theater
Open Fri.-Mon. noon-6 p.m., Tue.-Thu. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. until Jan. 15.
The Asia and Pacific Museum,
Asian Gallery, 5 Freta St., Warsaw
Admission: zl.5, zl.3 (concessions)
Free admission on Thursdays
For more information, go to www.muzeumazji.pl