Oral Traditions in Contemporary China

Juwen Zhang

doi:10.5771/9781793645142

Summary

In Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation, Juwen Zhang provides a systematic survey of such oral traditions as folk and fairy tales, proverbs, ballads, and folksongs that are vibrantly practiced today. Zhang establishes a theoretical framework for understanding how Chinese culture has continued for thousands of years with vitality and validity, core and arbitrary identity markers, and folkloric identity. This framework, which describes a cultural self-healing mechanism, is equally applicable to the exploration of other traditions and cultures in the world. Through topics from Chinese Cinderella to the Grimms of China, from proverbs like “older ginger is spicier” to the life-views held by the Chinese, and from mountain songs and ballads to the musical instruments like the clay-vessel-flute, the author weaves these oral traditions across time and space into a mesmerizing intellectual journey. Focusing on contemporary practice, this book serves as a bridge between Chinese and international folklore scholarship and other related disciplines as well. Those interested in Chinese culture in general and Chinese folklore, literature, and oral tradition in particular will certainly delight in perusing this book.

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Bibliographic data

Publication year: 2021
Publication date: 08.11.2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-4513-5
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-4514-2
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 246
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Preface No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
1. 1. A Glimpse of the History of China-West Interaction No access
  2. Folklore Collection in Chinese History No access
  3. Folklore Studies in the Twentieth Century No access
  4. Folklore and Cultural Heritage in the Twenty-First Century No access
  5. Chinese Folklore and Folkloristics in Perspective No access
2. 1. The Operation of the Cultural Self-Healing Mechanism No access
  2. Fundamental Beliefs and Values in Chinese Culture No access
  3. The Vitality and Validity in the Transmission of Tradition No access
  4. Core and Arbitrary Identity Markers No access
  5. Hybridity in Cultural Continuation and the Making of the Third Culture No access
  6. The Cultural Self-Healing Mechanism in Chinese Practices No access
  7. Harmonization, Heritagization, and Localization No access
1. 1. The Transformation from “Fairies” in Europe to “Children” in China No access
  2. Tonghua in Metamorphosis: Literary Tonghua, Folk Tonghua, and Children’s Literature No access
  3. Definitions and Categorizations Today No access
  4. Beyond Genre: Beliefs and Values in Everyday Life No access
  5. Chinese Fairy Tales in the Western Eye No access
  6. Lin Lan as the Grimms of China: National Spirit in Fairy Tales No access
  7. Fairy Tales and the Stereotypes toward Chinese Culture and People in Global Context No access
2. 1. The Textual and Contextual History over a Thousand Years No access
  2. Oral Storytelling in the Twenty-First Century No access
1. Chapter 5: Proverbs with Chinese Characteristics: A History In and Outside China No access
2. 1. Concepts and Proverbs of Old Age and Aging No access
  2. The Origin of the Proverb No access
  3. The Transformation and Variants of the Proverb No access
  4. Contemporary Uses of the Proverb: Continuity and Renovation No access
  5. Four Life-Views Reflected in Chinese Proverbs No access
1. 1. Geyao in Chinese and Ballad in European Definitions No access
  2. Categorization of Ballads No access
  3. The Developmental History of Geyao Collection and Studies in China No access
  4. Geyao: The Leading Concept of the New Culture Movement in the Twentieth Century No access
  5. Geyao: Contemporary Approaches No access
  6. Geyao in Contemporary Everyday Practice No access
2. 1. The Clay Vessel Xun-Flute as a Musical Instrument No access
  2. The Reconstruction of the Xun at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century No access
  3. The Root of the Revitalization No access
  4. Traditionalization and Heritagization in the Reconstruction of Identity No access
  5. Localization of Traditions in the Making of a Third Culture and New Identity: A Personal Reflection No access
Glossary No access Pages 203 - 206
Bibliography No access Pages 207 - 236
Index No access Pages 237 - 244
About the Author No access Pages 245 - 246