From Folk Art To The Cultural Heritage

Xiushan Festive Lanterns, which prevail in Chongqing Tujia and Miao-minorities Autonomous County, turn into a branch of Southern Festive Lanterns. Besides, it is also a folk cultural integration of religion, folk custom, song and dance, drama, acrobatics and paper-binding arts. For many years, it has gradually turned into an indispensable branch of China's Festive Lantern Art, resulting from its uniquely regional and artistic characters. In May,2006, it was firstly enrolled on the protection catalogue of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage as a folk custom item. Actually, it bases itself in contemporary practice, aiming to inherit and spread the superior national culture, to improve the quality of cultural products, and, to promote the cultural innovation, which are major tasks for the twelfth five -year plan. Moreover, special attention should be paid to promote cultural development and prosperity, strengthening its flexibility. Furthermore, conserving and making full use of the intangible cultural heritage also exert a profound influence on inheriting and promoting the essence of culture, enhancing the unity of nations and country, boosting the national confidence and cohesion, and advancing the spiritual civilization construction.This paper presents an anthropological survey of Xiushan Festive Lanterns in both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. It makes an observation on the origin, formative causes and the contemporary evolutional process of Xiushan Festive Lanterns, which is called academically synchronic research, intended to disclose its occurrence, development, changing process and the interaction with outer space context. And on the other hand, it also makes an inspection on the current cultural representation of such various substantial and intangible heritage as the fixed rites, music forms, dance forms and the attitudes of local people, which is called diachronic research, displaying whether the significance of Xiushan Festive Lanterns have changed correspondingly after the transformation of folk art into the intangible heritage. This dissertation has a profound argumentation as well as theoretical thoughts and more comprehension.The previous research of folk art stressed the dichotomy of phenomena, forms and essence, whereas, anthropology persists the integral observation and connection, focusing on returning to the native point of view by means of field working research methods. The three main points in this paper are as follows:1,Description of the prosperous scene of Lanterns, establishing the frame of reference.Folk art is a product of history and society. Its existence and prosperity work as a true reflection of this era. For the sake of describing the general state, we had better start with the research on the folk lantern teams. Besides that, Theory of Space can be applied to make the space observation possible. This ranges from the original theory to regional distribution, from the same blood kin to the formation of multiple branches, from objective necessity to subjective desire; from single-dimensional motion to multi-dimensional immobility; from stationary teams to spatially parallel conditions. To accomplish the accurate description, we have to finish the space observation in a point-to-point, face-to-face, cluster-to-cluster, region-to-region, space-to-space way. Besides, the observation requires a connective and functional variations. In this paper, I have quoted Marx's relevant views about the national "intercourse" and uncover that it is the productivity that confines "intercourse" of lantern's team. Furthermore, judging from the consequences of calculating the figure of the passengers per year, I obtained the distribution feature of "being far from centre"; by calculating workdays and comparing them with the national average number, I conclude that they have got backward productivity. "Being far from centre" and "backward productivity" constitute a "motionless" lantern team. However, because "necessity" and "voicing their desire" are the foundation for Xiushan Festive Lanterns' continuous existence, overall activities cannot be covered by partial "motionless". All in all, that is the reflection of the prosperity of festive lanterns, which acts as the frame of reference to sustain my research.2,Stepping into the folk art ontologyThe whole procedural presentation of festive lantern performing can be divided into two parts, the inner essence and outward performance. I observe this in a broad new perspective. The inner manifestation can be regarded as its rites, which make up the "soul" of Xiushan Festive Lanterns, while singing and dancing is its outward performance. I demonstrate the fixed rite and interpret its metaphor and functions. As a consequence, I reveal the fact that the individuals rely heavily on the rites. And the rituals or ceremonies play a significant role in religion for it can meet their needs. Since the ceremony can express people's wishes, it eventually become the soul of lantern dancing, because of which it can subsist for long. This article analyzes its music and dance and exposes its relationship with rites. Song and Dance, as the outward expression of the ceremony, is a crucial part. It shows individuals' enthusiasm and makes sense through exhibition, make-up and so on.Its music mode, pitch, melody, rhythms, etc. are aesthetically significant, reflecting the conceptions and customs in deep consciousness of people. The dancing form and its dynamic display contain the aesthetic pursuit as music itself, and simultaneously, are expressions of meanings.3,"Reconstruction" of the pastThe core of the value of the heritage is its original state and integrity. The diachronic statement and repetition are the key for folk art to transform itself into the intangible heritage, so the current significance of the reconstruction of the past is firstly a reflection of the change of outer scene, and in fact, we cannot enable "yesterday once more". How the local point of view could be expressed in the reconstruction? and how the historical binder could be used? Two chapters are designed to discuss about the changes in them. To make the memory of folk festive lantern troupes, the corroborative methods are to be adopted. This dissertation does a survey on the evolutional process of 50 years of the biggest festive lantern troupe, confirming the status of folk troupes, and reflecting the integral changes of Xiushan Festive Lanterns. It needs the lantern artists to be historical witnesses, so as to add the memorial supplementation and reconstruct the epoch memory.The competition for the possession of the folk song Boxwood Shoulder Pole was a big event in the historical reconstruction, behind which was a logic performance of cultural capital. The openness of folk art and the exclusive nature of cultural resources are now slyly juxtaposed, manifesting that art is being transferred into a legacy with political and economical connotations.The conclusion of this paper is just to show some new comprehension after the observation, that is, art and culture have become the goals of marketing competition, and the cultural self-consciousness is, perhaps, not a good prescription.