Ethnic Oral Traditions of China

巴莫曲布嫫

The special issue of Oral Tradition has come into view
Ethnic Oral Traditions of China
Chao Gejin, Special Editor
Zhang Youyun, Project Coordinator
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From Editor:  
Chao Gejin

This Special Issue of Oral Tradition, as a prospective production of the cooperative project between the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition (CSOT) and the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL) of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) that initiated in 1999, is the first collection of papers published in English on studies of oral traditions of ethnic groups in China.

Having shared the common interest and orientation to promote Sino-U.S. discourses in oral traditions, we planned out the bilateral project at the very first step to introduce recent Northern American scholarship to Chinese readers, as well as to present Chinese researches on ethnic verbal art to English readers. In 2000, seven English papers recommended by Professor Foley were translated and published in Studies of Ethnic Literature, a quarterly journal founded in 1983, sponsored by the IEL to encourage study of oral and written literature of ethnic groups in China. In this special Chinese Issue subtitled American Scholarship on Oral Tradition, we have been fortunate in assembling contributions from scholars in the States, who have made ground-breaking interpretations of oral traditions. We also have had the honor of adding Professor Foley's succinct head note to each paper, and his insightful perspectives on the discipline to the addendum in order to show our readers the new directions in the field. It's worth mentioning that the issue has been warmly welcomed by Chinese scholars from relevant disciplines. And now, we are very happy to see the counterpart issue coming out in the States. The authors here are all my colleagues, and the great majority comes from minority ethnic groups, or with a specialized knowledge of indigenous traditions and ethnic verbal arts.

From the green grassland of the north, to the lush jungles in the south, from the coastal areas along Taiwan Strait in the east, to the "world height" in the west, there have been 56 official ethnic groups residing in Mainland China. The largest group, the Han, make up over 92% of China's vast population, and thus it is somewhat understandable that when the rest of the world talks about "Chinese Culture", they often refers to "Han Culture." Yet, the 55 ethnic minorities, largely inhabiting away on China's vast frontiers, spreading out 64% of China's territory, have been struggling to maintain their own languages, oral traditions, and cultural identities for centuries.

In this English volume, thirteen authors examine oral traditions from various perspectives. Obviously, no single collection of papers could adequately cover the extensive range of traditional expressive arts observed in the diverse cultures of a country as huge and complex as China, anyhow, some important genres like epic, myth, sacred songs, incantation epos concerning Tibetan, Mongolian, Kirghiz, Manchu, Nahxi, Yi, Miao, and Dong peoples are represented here. We are aware that these papers revealed, in some sense, a general situation of diversity, multiformity, and complexity of oral traditions in China. We are also aware, without a doubt, that the present issue merely provides a close-up picture, illuminating Chinese current scholarship exploring into the roots of expressive cultures of human beings.
We are confident that the international scholarship in oral tradition has a promising future, one impetus is: its leading arena, the Oral Tradition, has been keen on broadening our vision to other culture, and sharpening our sense to rebuild the rules of verbal art. We hope this volume will reach into a new stage of our discipline toward dialogue and exchange with others who seek to better understand the expressive culture of human beings, in particular, through the discourses in discussing oral traditions of ethnic groups in China.

Hearty thanks must go first to Prof. Foley; it was his suggestion that made this volume possible. Much credit for the publicity of this volume should go to the translators and the editors. Not only are the subject matters difficult, but also the original texts with Chinese academic style do not easily translate into English academic format. My old friend, Dr. Naran Bilik and his buddies have made great effort to translate the majority of the papers into English. As for the editing process, I myself worked together with John Zemke, Michael Barnes, Kristin Funk, Heather Hignite, Heather Maring for months, I know how tough the job was for them. Aaron Tate helped me in some ways to edit the papers as well. Also, my special gratitude goes to my colleague Ms. Bamo Qubumo, for her generous assistance to editors in various ways. Here we would also like to extend our acknowledgement to Foreign Affairs Bureau of CASS, especially to Dr. Pei Changhong and Mr. Zhang Youyun, for the sustentation fund appropriated to this issue.

CONTENTS

Oral Tradition, 16/2 (2001)
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Song Heping
A Preliminary Analysis of the Oral Shamanistic Songs of the Manchus

Lang Ying
The Bard Jusup Mamay

Bai Gengsheng
Nakhi Tiger Myth in its Context

Zhalgaa
A Brief Account of Bensen ülger and ülgeren Bense

Jiangbian Jiacuo
Bab Sgrung: Tibetan Epic Singers

Yang Enhong
On the Study of the Narrative Structure of Tibetan Epic: A Record of King Gesar

Li Lianrong
A History of Approaches to the Tibetan Epic Gesar's Time of Origin

Xie Jisheng
The Mythology of Tibetan Mountain Gods: an Overview

Wu Xiaodong
The Rhinoceros Totem and Pangu Myth:
An Exploration of the Archetype of Pangu

Rinchindorji
Mongolian-Turkic Epics: Typological Formation and Development

Chao Gejin
The Oirat Epic Cycle Jangar

Deng Minwen
Dong Oral Poetry: Kuant Cix

Bamo Qubumo
Traditional Nuosu Origin Narratives: A Case Study of Ritualized Epos in Bimo Incantation Scriptures
[ 本帖由 巴莫曲布嫫 于 2003-9-6 01:28 最后编辑 ]

巴莫曲布嫫

About the Journal of Oral Tradition

This periodical was founded in order to address a clear need in the area of studies in oral tradition: although pathbreaking research was taking place in many different traditions, and although each tradition or classically defined discipline had more or less sufficient avenues for publication within its own purview, there existed no comparative, interdisciplinary journal devoted specifically to this area. The result was that scholars in one field were seldom aware of important scholarship in other fields, and progress over the larger spectrum of traditions was haphazard; studies in oral tradition lurched this way and that, often reinventing the wheel, without a central organ for summarizing research in a given field and presenting new findings to a suitably heterogeneous audience. Under no illusion that a single journal would immediately provide the requisite coordination, but equally aware that great steps could be taken to help remedy the situation, I sought from 1984 onward to found a periodical that would speak to as many different specialties as possible, and in the process foster awareness of what was transpiring in research on traditions across the world.

The history of Oral Tradition may be effectively read in its contents from 1986 onward. Even a casual glance, however, will ascertain that OT has published articles on, among other areas, folklore, Biblical studies, ancient (and medieval and Modern) Greek, English, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Yugoslav, Chinese, French, German, African, African American, Persian, Norse, Italian, Welsh, Romanian, Mayan, (Asian) Indian, Arabic, Hungarian, Finnish, Japanese, Tibetan, central Asian (Kirgiz), and numerous South Pacific traditions. Other issues have included special issues on Native American, the epics of the Euro-Asian Silk Road, and South Asian Women's Traditions.

http://www.oraltradition.org/otjournal/about.asp

[ 本帖由 巴莫曲布嫫 于 2003-9-6 01:30 最后编辑 ]