Real Feeling Behind Mask

Real Feeling Behind Mask:The Anthropological Study on Nuo Ritual Music of Dangliyaovillage of Guichi District in Anhui ProvinceNuo is a ritual with people, masked, singing and dancing to pray for the blessings and dispelthe evils. With its long history, Nuo has become great treasure with a profound disposition oftraditional culture. Dangliyao, a mountain village in Guichi District of Anhul Province is sampledby the author of this thesis to carry out some microscopic investigations under the macroscopicbackground. The author means to manifest the colorful cultural world and, on a macroscopic level,to probe in the cultural rules.This thesis is made up of nine chapters, all of which can be summed up as "one central task","three focal points" and "two threads"One central task refers to the central orientation this thesis is studying. The core methodologythat this thesis adheres to is to fully explain the meaning underneath the cultural appearance. Toachieve this goal, based on description, this thesis will move on from description to explanation,by using various theories for reference, combining different kinds of material and doing theresearch in different ways."Three focal points" refer to the three basic points of the body part of the thesis. The firstpoint is cultural explanation (Please refer to chapter three, four and five). By using semeiology,symbol and metaphor, this ritual is explained in different ways in the following aspects, such asthe space, the time, the properties, the appearance and meaning of the music. The author believesthat the culture of Nuo is a semiological system filled with symbol and metaphor. Everything inthe Nuo culture, ranging from one item, a piece of property, a song or a dance to an act of a play,is endowed with symbol and metaphor which are beyond their own images. As a result, it becomesa cultural symbol. The second point is the analysis of Nuo's cultural function (Please refer tochapter seven). This analysis is carried out in three angles—the angle of the insiders, the outsidersand the rites and music culture. The author thinks that the existence of Nuo, of its singing anddancing and its opera today is because it is a cultural activity with actual meaning and veryimportant cultural functions. The third point is the dynamic exploration on Nuo's formation,maintenance, development and changes (please refer to chapter six and eight). The explorationincludes the influences from history, society, nature and individual on Nuo culture, the analysis of the cultural conflicts in modern context, and the adjustment of these conflicts. The author believesthat Nuo culture has been under constantly dynamic development. During its development, thecommunication and transmission of folk songs, the mutual leaning and interplay between folksongs and operas, "historical construction", "individual creation and experience", the conflicts andadjustment during the process of modernization are all concrete embodiment of the culturalchanges.The "two threads" in this thesis are respectively the explanation of Nuo's cultural meaning,and the analysis of Nuo's cultural function. Three chapters are presented under the title of "thesemiological world of symbol and metaphor", while exploring the semiological meaning of theculture impenetrates all the other chapters. This forms the apparent thread of the explanation of thecultural meaning. Although there is only one chapter analyzing the cultural functions, thesemiological meaning of symbol and metaphor, the formation, maintenance of Nuo, the conflictsand adjustment in modem context are all based on its cultural functions. The adjustment made bycultural function to fit into some new conditions leads to the cultural changes. Consequently,another flickering thread of analyzing the cultural functions has been formed. These two threadsplay significant roles in this thesis.The last chapter concludes the whole thesis by summing up nine points and reveals the unityof the opposites in "falseness and trueness", "holiness and commonness" in Nuo culture. Finally,the core preposition about Dangliyao and Nuo's culture—"real feeling behind mask" has been putforward.