Organisers said the puppeteers had demonstrated just how nimble a giant rod puppet - standing more than a metre tall, and weighing up to 5kg - could be.
About 60 people, including several young children, watched the first of a series of 15-minute puppet shows.
A buzz of delight went up from the youngsters when Hu Hai, a master puppeteer, and his large puppet associate wrote the Chinese characters for "happy new year" on a board and followed it with the English version.
Elaborately-carved rod puppets perform nightly in the traditional tea houses of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.
Master puppeteers can make their puppets, despite their size, perform several difficult actions, such as putting on clothes, drinking tea, and wielding weapons.
This week's calligraphy sequence was followed by opera-style puppet performances, given during a multi-centre New Zealand tour.
Port Chalmers resident Beris Forde and her daughter Sersha (4) were both impressed.
"You actually forget that they're puppets. After a while, you think you're watching people," she said.
