| This dissertation explores zidishu (bannermen tales), a popular storytelling genre created by Manchus in the early eighteenth century. By contextualizing zidishu in Qing dynasty Beijing, this study examines its performance, texts in both Manchu-Chinese bilingual forms and in Chinese, and its circulation and reception. Although zidishu was closely associated with the Manchus, its readers or listeners were not limited to the Manchus after the genre became popular in Beijing and Northeast China. This study seeks to answer several key questions. Should zidishu be regarded as a form of Manchu literature, even though most of its texts were written in Chinese? How did zidishu writers selectively draw their source materials from Chinese fiction and drama, but develop apart from earlier texts? How is Manchu ethnic identity presented in zidishu? How and where were zidishu performed in Qing Beijing? Guided by theories of minority literature, cultural studies, and intertextuality, I investigate both the non-Han Chinese aspects of zidishu and the impact of Han culture on zidishu to paint a more complete picture of this genre. Instead of limiting itself to the texts in the Chewangfu collection, this dissertation, based on fieldwork and archival research, scrutinizes various hand-copied and printed zidishu texts housed in libraries in mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan. In particular, it focuses on those texts reflecting multiple aspects of Qing cultural hybridity, from history and gender to linguistics and politics. I argue that zidishu exemplified elements of Manchu cultural hybridization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while at the same time performing and perpetuating Manchu identity. Zidishu sheds light on the role of Manchu language in Qing literature, amateur theater in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Beijing, and the social and cultural relationships between Manchu barmen-ten and the Han Chinese population. |
