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Informationen zum Autor Juwen Zhang is professor of Chinese and folklore at Willamette University, Oregon. Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung Through a historical survey and analyses of oral traditions like fairy tales, proverbs, and ballads, among others, that are still in vigorous practice in China today, this informative and stimulating book proposes a theoretical framework for interpreting how and why traditions continue or discontinue in any culture. Inhaltsverzeichnis Part I: Introduction: An Interpretive Framework for the Continuity of Traditions Chapter 1: Folklore and Folkloristics in China Chapter 2: The Inherent Cultural Self-Healing Mechanism Part II:Gushi: Tales of Chinese Characteristics Chapter 3: Fairytale as Tonghua: Localizing Narrative Genre and National Spirit Chapter 4: The Moon Man: A Tale in Telling for a Thousand Years Part III: Yanyu: Proverbs of Stereotypes and Life-Views Chapter 5: Proverbs with Chinese Characteristics: A History in and outside China Chapter 6: Older Ginger Is Spicier: Chinese Life-views in Proverbs Part IV: Geyao: Ballads and Stories without Words Chapter 7: The Trilateral Trajectories: Oral, Literary and Musical Traditions of Ballads Chapter 8: Stories without Words: The Traditionalization of a Musical Instrument ...
