Paper-cut Inheritance. Institutionalized Background And Life Practice

The cultural inheritance in everyday life is an important research field of folkloristics. The weaknesses of former research paradigm of textual study could be largely compensated by adopting inheritance prerequisite, normalization, context and inheritors. With the research object of paper-cut inheritance, this thesis reviews relative studies on folklore inheritance, starts with a continuity at stake in reality, explores the process of adjustment of folk culture, particularly of paper-cut in the game of multiple powers.As an interpersonal behavior, folklore inheritance is the way to continue culture, which is embedded in the practice of everyday life. And the inheritance is possible because of the intercommunity of folks or folk custom life. Through daily interaction, the inheritors get to understand and respect the values conveyed by the statements and actions of the communicators. With this regard, the inheritance involves the function of society from the macro perspective and the socialization of individuals from the micro perspective. The inheritance is not only the continuation of the folk culture, but also of the folklore custom life. Influenced by marketization, industrialization and state intervention in modern society, paper-cut inheritance inevitably changes along with the transform of folklore culture, which is embodied in people's daily life.Seven chapters constitute this thesis. The first chapter is the preface, which includes the significance of research subject, literature review, research method and material sources, key concepts and analysis structure. The main body of this thesis is composed of the following five chapters, which dissects the paper-cut inheritance with the theories of folklore inheritance from various dimentions. The second chapter describes and analyses the context of paper-cut inheritance. The third chapter describes the forms and content of Gaomi paper-cut pruction. The fourth chapter consentrates on the inheritance and its changes of paper-cut in Henan village. The fifth chapter dwells on the emergence of new-type paper-cut and the status transformation of paper-cut makers. The sixth chapter reveals the social function and intergenerational inheritance of paper-cut. In the seventh chapter, the conclusion is drawn after adequate discussion on paper-cut inheritance at various levels of the state, local society and village.Based on the fieldwork at Henan village in the Province of Shandong, the author argues that the paper-cut is not only an essential part of daily life of local people, but also the media through which people follow the rhythm of nature and keep the society in order. By making and sharing the paper-cut, people participate into the construction of local society net-work. In the world of folklore custom, the concrete images of art of paper-cut (such as paper-cut for wedding, window decaration, shoes, pastry and funeral) embody cultural connotation which has been widely accepted by the locals. From this point of view, the folk and lore is indivisible and the former obviously occupies the principal status. Along with the process of industralization and marketiztion, there is an emerging trend that paper-cut gradually fades out of local daily life (e.g. The disappearance of paper-cut for windows, the commercialization of paper-cut, etc.). As the folks are the subject of folklore culture and its inheritance, the inheritors occupy a key position during the process of folklore inheritance. Within the village of the fieldwork, the original dispersed inheritors trend to centralize. Specifically speaking, only the Fan family and a small group with intimate relationship with Fans survive as inheritors of paper-cut, which is largely because of the offical authentication. To a great extent, the identifation of paper-cut inheritors depends on the powers outside the life community:state power, academic research and media report shapes the identity of professional paper-cut inheritors. Disengaging themselves from local culture in which they live, the professional paper-cut inheritors get involved more and more in the network of institutionalized inheritance.The process of inheritance of paper-cut is simultaneously the process of living practice. With design in their heart, the professional paper-cut artists are made by local folklore culture. Shared by local folks, the publicity is characteristic of the paper-cut. Although the paper-cut gradually falls back within the ritual realm along with the improvement of material condition, the paper-cut still serves as medium of gift mechanism, which reveals universal values of paper-cut culture. During the process of intergenerational inheritance of paper-cut, the values are conveyed by the elder generation and accepted by the younger generation, which is essential for the village community and local society to function normally.Seen from state level, the up-down project of paper-cut protection should combine the bottom-up cultural renaissance and consciousness in civil society. The offical approach to protect paper-cut culture should be guided with the gift mechanim existing in folk society. With regard to the inheritance of paper-cut, the principal status of local folks should be respected and efforts should be made to facilitate the gradual process of cultural consciousness by local folks. Only in this way could the paper-cut be shared and participated in by local society, and appreciated in a broader realm of public social culture.