Official Tradition And Intellectual Narrations

Following the reconstruction of a new global political and cultural order in the late 20th Century, the Chinese academia once again faces the dilemma: how to establish the root of its own culture and at the same time, how to participate in a multicultural world? On the aspect of comparative literature and cultural studies, such a dilemma turns into the necessity of further developing literary encounters and the possibility of poetic dialogues.Various explorations and elaborations of these important questions have emerged in the academia, including 1) the warning against the Native literary theory's "losing voice"; 2) the optimism believing that Chinese culture will become the leading global culture in the 21st Century; 3) the advocate of a "harmonious and different" future world. Approaching from a different perspective, the dissertation begins with the "Folklore Movement" during the era of the "Republic of China" (1912-1949). It explores the cultural motivations and the historical process of transformation of the Chinese literary theories and poetics and therefore reflects upon the correlations of "East-West" contact.The dissertation consists of nine chapters. The first chapter traces the emergence of "Folklore Movement" to its incorporation into Chinese Studies. The second and third chapters are closely related in an analysis of the "three-level structure" of traditional Chinese society with the focus on the causes of"Folklore Movement" and its historical background. Chapter Four is about the relationships between "new national ethos" and "new literature"/"new history." It reveals how the intellectuals participated in the construction of national history through the "folk turn" in both arts and humanities.Chapter Five and Six are about the roles of music, ethnic studies and anthropology in Folklore Movement. In an effort to transcend the disciplinary confinement, both chapters serve to provide a larger picture of the folklore studies of that time.Chapter Seven tackles with the "official" tradition during the Folklore movement and compares it with the "academic" tradition that has been given much more attention by its intellectual narrators. This chapter on the one hand stresses the impact of governmental administration on folklore and folk customs, on the other hand concerns with the constantly changing relationship between intellectuals and state interventions.Chapter Eight focuses on the influence from the outside on Chinese "folklore turn" since the 1860s. The last chapter uses professor Zhu Zhiqing, one of the famous Chinese scholars during the era of the Republic of China, as an example to review again the folklore research at an individual level.In brief speaking, what the paper discussed are four key words: Folk, State, Song and Academy. These key words can also be combined as connected phrases. Which are "folk-song", "national academy" and "governmental folklore study".