Gender In The Context Of Tu Nationality Folk Narrative Research

In this paper, folk narratives of Tu Nationality(土族) in the 1980s are taken asthe subject of the present study in which a cultural analysis of folk narratives in thegender context is performed. The term "gender context" refers to a cultural contextthat is closely linked with the "social gender". In accordance with female sociologists'understanding, the concept of "social gender" is not on the biological plane, but on thecultural plane, which emphasizes the various meanings attached to masculinity andfemininity by the society and culture. Conducted from the perspectives of culture andgender, this research focuses on the folk narratives of the Tu so as to observe thegender tendencies of the narrative subjects in their receiving, reconstructing anddelivering of the folk narratives, as well as the social and cultural meaningscorrespondingly generated from this process. At present, a majority of studies on theTu narrative literature adopted the traditional classification and are based on a statictext analysis. Few of them adopted the methods of cultural studies from a perspectiveof gender context. This paper aims to fill this academic gap. The author has obtainedfolklore background information in the present study from the fieldwork; hence theconclusion is based on the analysis of the first-hand materials.The Tu is a nationality with its unique cultural traditions. In a very long period oftime, their folk beliefs, life rituals, folk costumes, cuisine and habitation traditions,daily customs are quite different from other nationalities: they not only have theirspecial cultural representation, but also their own profound cultural connotations.From 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded to the 1980s, with thereform and opening-up, the diverse characteristics of the Tu culture graduallyweakened, and cultural homogeneity has become a distinct characteristic of thatperiod. Reform and opening-up policy effected a development of not only theeconomy, but also the restoration of cultural diversity. With the implementation ofnational-regional policy and the freedom of religious belief policy, traditional cultureof the Tu has undergone a gradual recovery. In the context of such an era, peopleshowed an unprecedented enthusiasm on the salvage and the reconstruction of the folk culture. Thus, folk narratives naturally revived. Meanwhile, the living environment ofthe Tu women had been greatly changed since the reform and opening up policy wasintroduced, hence the ideology of the Tu women also changed. However, it isnoteworthy that the Tu villages in the 1980s were a typical "rural society", a termdefined by Fei Xiaotong. That is to say, the economic ethics(the ethical relations andthe ethical principles, which are linked with the rural economic activities andeconomic relations) that governed the rural society was at the same time the verytypical traditional Chinese ethics of the rural economy. Therefore, theself-developments and the ideological changes of the Tu women showed differentcharacteristics compared with those of the Han women. In short, in the 80s, theself-development of the Tu women was full of contradictions and struggles. That is tosay, on the one hand, they had to preserve traditions; on the other hand, they strived toplant the seed of the modern consciousness and began to ponder on many issuesconcerning their own culture. These varied changes gained cultural attention frommales, who could not precisely define and accurately evaluate such changes. However,women's subtle and dynamic attempts of change caused males' deep-seated culturalpsychological anxiety. The reason is that women's action sent a signal of changingattempts of the existing social order, which attracted the attention of the males'cultural system. Due to the absence of written language, folk narratives have becomean important way to express social and gender awareness and to manifest genderculture. Thus a conclusion can be made that folk narratives in the gender contextdemonstrate males and females' emotional perception and rational thinking ofmodernity. Ideological confrontations of modernity and cultural debates in the folknarratives gradually unfold.In such a process, the Tu folk narratives serve as a barometer of gender culture,reflecting the following trends of the culture:1. Women's collective initiation and the individual breakout of the modernconsciousness reflected in folk narratives: With the overall changes of the socialenvironment and cultural context in the 1980s, the Tu females' self-consciousness ofthe social role and the heritage of family culture were experiencing an unprecedented awakening of modernity: the preliminary understanding of modern consciousness ofself value, self needs, social gender, social role positioning, etc. However, since theoverall environment was still operating in accordance with the traditional rules, the Tuwomen's self-awareness was not fully awake; thus can be described as a preliminaryand obscure awakening. In the process of narrating, women consciously adopted thenarrative strategy, i.e. making the past serve the present, expressing their real needs bythe traditional narratives so as to find a way to be equal to men: they longed for therecognition from the society for their labor and their intellectual contributions. Thefolk narratives including youth narratives and custom narratives authenticallyrecorded and reflected this transformation of their thinking. Moreover, the sacrednarratives saved them a cultural space for retreating from the challenging reality. Tobe exact, the initiation of the modern consciousness is the collective behavior,whereas the breaking away from the traditions is the individual behavior conducted byonly a few young women.2. Males' collective anxiety and individual recognition of the female modernconsciousness reflected in folk narratives: The Tu society in the 1980s was a typicalmale-dominated society, which means men occupied an absolute superior politicalposition in the village; meanwhile, women was subordinated to them. The Tuwomen's awakening of modernity caused males' "cultural reaction" correspondingly:firstly, males' anxiety of women's modern awakening, which was collective behavior.That is to say, males adopted the taboo narratives in the public domain displayingtheir "misogyny" in order to prevent the enhancement of women's social position,meanwhile strengthened the status of the male gender superiority. Secondly, males areidentified with women's changing social position: the contract responsibility systemstressed the importance of labor cooperation among family members. This structuralchange of domestic economy strengthened males' family values. Thus, a majority ofmales' attitudes toward women significant changed in the private domain, mainly, infamilies. In the daily narratives, these changes were reflected in the males' recognitionand the explanation of the females' wisdom and happiness.Therefore, a conclusion can be made: The self-expression of the Tu women in the 1980s reflected a breakthrough of modernity, a cultural trend that caused males'vigilance and anxiety. Due to the absence of written language of the Tu, theideological confrontations or the undercurrents, were demonstrated and preserved inthe folk narratives, which became a meaningful cultural movement: females expressedthemselves; meanwhile, males as rulers of gender politics made a correspondingresponse. Through the fieldwork that is based on the literature review of the 1980s,the present study has rediscovered this cultural movement, which is animated by theauthenticity and specificity of folk narratives.