Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China

Ziying You

Description

In this important ethnography Ziying You explores the role of the "folk literati" in negotiating, defining, and maintaining local cultural heritage. Expanding on the idea of the elite literati—a widely studied pre-modern Chinese social group, influential in cultural production—the folk literati are defined as those who are skilled in classical Chinese, knowledgeable about local traditions, and capable of representing them in writing. The folk literati work to maintain cultural continuity, a concept that is expressed locally through the vernacular phrase: "incense is kept burning."

You's research focuses on a few small villages in Hongtong County, Shanxi Province in contemporary China. Through a careful synthesis of oral interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis, You presents the important role the folk literati play in reproducing local traditions and continuing stigmatized beliefs in a community context. She demonstrates how eight folk literati have reconstructed, shifted, and negotiated local worship traditions around the ancient sage-Kings Yao and Shun as well as Ehuang and Nüying, Yao's two daughters and Shun's two wives. You highlights how these individuals' conflictive relationships have shaped and reflected different local beliefs, myths, legends, and history in the course of tradition preservation. She concludes her study by placing these local traditions in the broader context of Chinese cultural policy and UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage program, documenting how national and international discourses impact actual traditions, and the conversations about them, on the ground.

Acknowledgments

A Note on Romanization, Chinese Characters, and English Translation

Introduction

1. Background: Situating Local Beliefs about Ehuang and Nüying in Hongtong, Shanxi

2. Incense Is Kept Burning: The Role of Folk Literati in Continuing and Representing Local Traditions

3. Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Worshipping Yao and Shun at Village Temples in Hongtong

4. Tradition Ecology: Debating and Remaking Ehuang and Nüying's Conflict Legends by Folk Literati

5. Reproducing Tradition: Folk Literati, Sociocultural Differentiation, and Their Interaction with Other Social Actors

6. Making Intangible Cultural Heritage: Folklore, Tradition, and Power

Conclusion

Appendix: In Commemoration of the Reconstruction of the Shun Temple

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• ancient
• HISTORY
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Folclore
• UNESCO
• General officer
• Mythology
• History of Asia
• Chinese
• Anthropology
• General
• Asia
• China
• Folklore
• Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la science et la culture

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 11 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780253046383
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

FOLK LITERATI, CONTESTED TRADITION, AND HERITAGE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA
FOLK LITERATI, CONTESTED TRADITION, AND HERITAGE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA
Incense Is Kept Burning
Ziying You
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2020 by Ziying You
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-04635-2 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-253-04636-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-04639-0 (web PDF)
1 2 3 4 5 25 24 23 22 21 20
To the brilliant and kind villagers ( laoxiang ) in Hongtong, Shanxi, China .
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
A Note on Romanization, Chinese Characters, and English Translation

Introduction
1 Background: Situating Local Beliefs about Ehuang and N ying in Hongtong, Shanxi
2 Incense Is Kept Burning: The Role of Folk Literati in Continuing and Representing Local Traditions
3 Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Worshipping Yao and Shun at Village Temples in Hongtong
4 Tradition Ecology: The Debating and Remaking of Ehuang and N ying s Conflict Legends by Folk Literati
5 Reproducing Tradition: Folk Literati, Sociocultural Differentiation, and Their Interaction with Other Social Actors
6 Making Intangible Cultural Heritage: Folklore, Tradition, and Power
Conclusion

Appendix: In Commemoration of the Reconstruction of the Shun Temple
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I N H ONGTONG , S HANXI , C HINA, FIRST AND FOREMOST I would like to thank the participants of local annual ritual processions and temple fairs for their passion, devotion, generosity, kindness, patience, and trust. In the village of Yangxie, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Wang Wei and Miao Hongjun, who hosted me in their home, guided me to local culture, shared many precious local sources collected by Wang s family with me, accompanied me to numerous interviews, and kept me nourished with all kinds of delicious foods. In Yangxie, I am also grateful to Qiao Longhai; his wife, Miao Hongmei; and other members of Qiao s family, who kindly showed me Qiao Guoliang s manuscripts and told me his stories. In addition, I thank the Wei family, Wang Wenhua, Yan Zhenghong, Pei Beiji, Shao Caiwang, Qiao Bao, Su Jilin, Zhang Zhongyi, Wang Mandou, Su Wenkui, Chai Yufeng, Zhang Wenjin, Wang Zhizhong, Wang Jincui, Yan Quansheng, and numerous other local people who shared their values, beliefs, and stories with me. In Lishan, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Li Xuezhi for his enthusiasm and perseverance in publicly reviving local traditions over the past several decades and for his support of my research. I also thank Yang Biyun, Qin Sanyou, Li Miaotiao, Li Chunwen, Yang Jianli, Li Genwa, Wei Tianxing, Fan Wenxuan, Shi Ling er, Li Desheng, Sun Laixi, Shi Haiyu, Li Hongxing, Sun Guangsheng, Li Deshan, and many others for their generous help and lively conversations about local tradition. In Wan an, I am grateful to Du Baiwa and his family, Chen Baozi, Chen Zhongwei, Han Xiaomao, Shi Menzi, Hu Zhikan, Zhao Changzi, Hu Bingxian, Wang Tianguan, Du Dongxi, and many others. I would like to thank Zhou Xibin and Wang Chunliang for their help throughout my fieldwork in Hongtong. And finally I would like to thank Liu Kuili, Chen Yongchao, and many other folklorists in China who introduced me to the lively living traditions in Hongtong and helped in so many ways, both in furthering my studies and research and also in keeping me happy and sane throughout the process.
I would like to thank Mark Bender for offering his continued and unwavering support throughout all stages of the writing of this book and for being such a wonderful mentor and friend. I also owe many thanks to Dorothy Noyes, Meow Hui Goh, Kirk Denton, Amy Shuman, and Jeffrey H. Cohen for their guidance, advice, and patience during my writing process. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the great folklore community and the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature community at the Ohio State University for their overwhelming support.
I benefited greatly from the help, advice, and resources of many other scholars and friends during my fieldwork and research: Chao Gejin, L Wei, An Deming, Gao Bingzhong, Xiao Fang, Shi Aidong, Yang Lihui, Michael Dylan Foster, Lisa Gilman, Ina Asim, Sue Tuohy, Zhang Juwen, Jessica Anderson Turner, Li Jing, Levi Gibbs, He Man, Li Mengjun, Anne Henochowicz, Thomas Barone Beardslee, Cheng Anxia, Wang Junxia, Zhao Yuanhao, Wang Yao, Zhong Jian, Yao Huiyi, Sun Chunfang, and Yuan Bo.
The research for this book was conducted with the financial support of the Ohio State University Office of International Affairs, Center for Folklore Studies, and Department of East Asian Languages and Literature. Funding, space, and time for writing and research from 2015 to 2017 were provided by an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, and in my position as visiting assistant professor of Chinese Studies at the College of Wooster from 2017 to the present.
I am blessed with family who has offered much love and support over the years, particularly throughout all stages of my research and writing. I am particularly indebted to my father, You Shicai, and my mother, Cao Chuanxiu, in China. They encouraged me to pursue my own destiny and fight for my dream, even though I could not live close to them and take care of them while I did so. I am forever grateful for my husband, Zuchao Shen, who has been my strongest support on this project and so many others. His sacrifice of time and his unwavering dedication to my work leave me deeply touched. I am also grateful to my son, Enle Lucas Shen, who was born when I wrote the final chapter of my dissertation in May 2014, and to my daughter, Enxi April Shen, who was born when I was revising my book manuscript in April 2017. These two little individuals changed my life profoundly and strongly motivated me to succeed in my career.
Last but not least, thanks are due to members of the Indiana University Press for considering this book for publication. I am very grateful to Gary Dunham and Janice E. Frisch for their encouragement, support, and professional work. In addition, I am thrilled and honored to have worked with Ren Rodgers, my developmental editor, who put a great deal of time and effort into polishing this book from a stone to precious jewelry. I am also grateful to my anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments at crucial stages of this book s production.
None of the above-mentioned people or institutions are responsible for the interpretations or any shortcomings in the book.
Part of my discussion in chapter 6 , Making Intangible Cultural Heritage: Folklore, Tradition, and Power, appeared in the Journal of Folklore Research 2-3 (2015): 253-68. Part of my discussion in chapter 3 , Contested Myth, History, and Beliefs: Worshipping Yao and Shun at Village Temples in Hongtong, appeared in my chapter in the edited book volume Chinese Folklore Studies Today: Discourse and Practice (2019), Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
A NOTE ON ROMANIZATION, CHINESE CHARACTERS, AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION
T HE ROMANIZATION USED IN THIS BOOK IS THE Hanyu Pinyin system now in use in the People s Republic of China. For Chinese characters, I use both traditional and simplified ones in exactly the same way that the authors have used them in their original texts. I do not transform traditional Chinese characters into simplified ones or vice versa, because the coexistence of both systems indicates the tension between traditionalization and modernization as well as the shifting status of Chinese written systems.
When referring to Chinese names, places, and terms, I provide the English translation, Hanyu Pinyin, or Chinese characters. I am clearly aware of the linguistic compromise that I have to make when I translate some words and texts from Chinese into English (Chau 2006, 61). My goal is to convey the basic ideas from Chinese into English in an interactive transcultural communication.
FOLK LITERATI, CONTESTED TRADITION, AND HERITAGE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA
INTRODUCTION
T HIS BOOK ADDRESSES THE ROLE OF FOLK LITERATI in transmitting, producing, and reproducing local traditions, as well as controversies and conflicts over the reconstruction of tradition and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) within local contexts in contemporary China. In the twenty-first century, with the influence from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the project to protect ICH has spread all over China, greatly contributing to the current boom in cultural restoration, reconstruction, and tourism. Scholars often examine this global cultural landscape top-down and emphasize the role of extra-state and state institutions and powerful individual actors in the process of producing and managing heritage. However, it is important to recognize the perspectives of practitioners and local social actors who often became disempowered in this dynamic bureaucratic process of heritage making. With this book, I will explore grassroots perspect