Memory Making in Folk Epics of China. The Intimate and the Local in Chinese Regional Culture.
Language: English
Published by Cambria Press., Amherst, New York., 2022
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Asia Bookroom ANZAAB/ILAB, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaAsia Bookroom ANZAAB/ILAB
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xxx + 304pp, appendix, bibliography, index. Hardback, as new. This book offers a study of folk epics in China, performed in the pre-contemprary times at village level, which helped construct a sense of regional as opposed to national identity. The author draws on interviews with contemporary song transmitters and ethnologists from the Lake Tai region, as well as a collection of singer transcripts and unedited song material. This study further investigates the role folk epics played in shaping a sense of both "intimacy" and "identity" in delta communities. The work also contains extensive translations from the folk epics. (Publisher's description).
Seller Inventory # 216669
- Title
- Memory Making in Folk Epics of China. The Intimate and the Local in Chinese Regional Culture.
- Author
- MCLAREN, ANNE E.
- Publisher
- Cambria Press., Amherst, New York.
- Publication year
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1621966453
- ISBN 13
- 9781621966456
- Series
- Book 12 of 54: Cambria Sinophone World Series
- Seller catalogs
- China - Cultural Heritage
In pre-contemporary China, folk epics performed at village level helped to construct a sense of regional as opposed to national identity. This is the first book-length study in the West on the folk epics of the Han Chinese people, who are the majority population of China. These folk epics provide an unparalleled resource for understanding the importance of "the local" in Chinese culture, especially how rice-growing populations perceived their environment and relational world.
In studies of Chinese culture, it is the epics of borderland minority groups that have attracted most scholarly attention. It was formerly held that the Han Chinese people did not transmit songs of epic length. In the 1980s Chinese ethnologists were surprised to discover that amateur singers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province could sing lengthy narratives over the course of days. Close to forty folk epics have now been identified in the Lower Yangzi Delta.
The folk epics were sung by illiterate farmers while working in the rice paddy or boating along the waterways. It was believed that singing promoted crop fertility and that the rice-plant embodied a female rice spirit whose growth and development paralleled that of human sexuality and procreation. Regarded as "vulgar" due to its erotic content, this song tradition was marginalized and little understood. The erotic content is often removed in editions directed at a national readership.
Employing perspectives from memory studies, eco-criticism, and the study of oral traditions, this book examines in detail five iconic folk epics. One relates the story of an ancestor who brought knowledge of rice-growing to his community; another tells of a peasant-rebel leader and his fight with imperial authorities; three other examples relate stories of secret love affairs and their tragic outcomes. The author draws on interviews with contemporary song transmitters and ethnologists from the Lake Tai region, as well as a collection of singer transcripts and unedited song material. This study further investigates the role folk epics played in shaping a sense of both "intimacy" and "identity" in delta communities. The work contains extensive translations from the folk epics.
This book will appeal to readers interested in Chinese performance and regional culture, comparative world epics, eco-critical studies, and Chinese folk religion. It would be of benefit to readers beyond China Studies with an interest in the interaction between song, ritual, and the natural and constructed environment.
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Asia Bookroom ANZAAB/ILAB
Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Asia Bookroom is a specialised bookseller in Canberra, the capital of Australia. We specialise in books on Asia with smaller sections on the Pacific and the Middle East. We issue over 30 regular lists featuring recent arrivals of books and other paper material in our specialist areas. Our lists are available by e-mail, in printed form by post or by browsing our web page. Please let us know if you would like to be on our mailing list. We run a bricks and mortar premises in a commercial area which you are most welcome to visit. We are open by appointment or by chance. Our hours are posted for the following week on our website www.AsiaBookroom.com…
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