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De/re-construction of Zhuang shamanic songs in cultural festivals

De/re-construction of Zhuang shamanic songs in cultural festivals The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of Zhuang shamanic narrative songs at three festivals to explore how and why a narrative song genre that originated with Zhuang shamans is separated from shamanic ritual contexts and re-contextualized at festivals under the cultural policies instigated by the People’s Republic of China in the post-socialist era.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a review of publications on Zhuang performance art and fieldwork data collected in southwestern Guangxi, China.FindingsThe de-construction of Zhuang shamanic narrative song melodies dates back to the late nineteenth century, when southwestern Guangxi literati used the melodies to compose popular songs. By the 1950s, the religious elements of these narrative songs had already been obfuscated, leading Chinese scholars to select them as representative of Zhuang performance arts. Since the enactment of China’s Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) Law in the early twenty-first century, local Zhuang elites have re-constructed and re-introduced shamanic elements to narrative songs as they are performed at festivals as a means to further highlight the ethnic characteristics of the Zhuang people.Originality/valueThe paper provides detailed documentation of three cases of the restoration of shamanic elements to narrative songs sung by the Zhuang people. However, the research is limited to one community, inviting comparison with other cases, both inside and outside China, of how ICH policies impact grass-roots cultural practices. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Education and Development Studies Emerald Publishing

De/re-construction of Zhuang shamanic songs in cultural festivals

Kao, Ya-ning
Asian Education and Development Studies , Volume 9 (1): 10 – Jan 6, 2020
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2046-3162
DOI
10.1108/aeds-01-2018-0017
Publisher site
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of Zhuang shamanic narrative songs at three festivals to explore how and why a narrative song genre that originated with Zhuang shamans is separated from shamanic ritual contexts and re-contextualized at festivals under the cultural policies instigated by the People’s Republic of China in the post-socialist era.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a review of publications on Zhuang performance art and fieldwork data collected in southwestern Guangxi, China.FindingsThe de-construction of Zhuang shamanic narrative song melodies dates back to the late nineteenth century, when southwestern Guangxi literati used the melodies to compose popular songs. By the 1950s, the religious elements of these narrative songs had already been obfuscated, leading Chinese scholars to select them as representative of Zhuang performance arts. Since the enactment of China’s Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) Law in the early twenty-first century, local Zhuang elites have re-constructed and re-introduced shamanic elements to narrative songs as they are performed at festivals as a means to further highlight the ethnic characteristics of the Zhuang people.Originality/valueThe paper provides detailed documentation of three cases of the restoration of shamanic elements to narrative songs sung by the Zhuang people. However, the research is limited to one community, inviting comparison with other cases, both inside and outside China, of how ICH policies impact grass-roots cultural practices.

Journal

Asian Education and Development Studies – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jan 6, 2020

Keywords: China; De-contextualization; Re-contextualization; Intangible cultural heritage; Narrative songs; Zhuang people

References

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    Bauman, R.; Briggs, C.L.
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    Kao, Y.
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    Kao, Y.
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    Nguyen, T.H.
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    Wilkerson, J.
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  • 中华人民共和国非物质文化遗产法