Folklore In The Country Education Movement

In China, folklore is a newly-developed subject which has a short history of no more than one hundred years. Started from the early twentieth century, Chinese folklore began to develop and underwent the Beijing University Period, the Zhongshan University Period, the Hang Zhou Period, the Home Front Folklore of Civil War Period and the Period of New Traditions in Yan'an Folk Literature and so on. Many experts focus on this part of folklore. My essay also chose a part of it to probe into the collecting, recording, sorting and applying of the folklore and to observe the important role of educators' folk-custom activities in the history of Chinese folklore during the Country Education Movement and their contributions to the Chinese folklore. My essay is divided into six chapters as follows: Chapter one: The Country Education Movement is a social reformative movement in China started by a group of intellectuals in the 20's and 30's of twentieth century, who worried about the destiny of the nation and therefore tried to begin constructing the society with the countries. Folkloric culture was widely collected, sorted, investigated and applied by them as an important means of mass education and became a significant part of the Chinese folklore history. Chapter two: The background of the Country Education Movement. The movement is formed by the idea Saving the Nation with Education together with the innovation of the education system. Chapter three: The education belief suggesting the folk culture by the Country Education Movement. Take two experiment districts for example. They are Zouping Country Construction Institute in Shan Dong Province and the Mass Education Promoting Association in Ding county He Bei Province. The former emphasized on the innovation of folk-custom culture aiming at rejuvenating the fading Chinese culture and building new organizations and new customs while the latter used the investigation-and-experiment method in western modern education for reference and viewed the folk culture as the investigation background and content as well as the media used by the country education. Chapter four: The application of folklore in the Country Education Movement. First, the inevitability of the folklore application which is decided by the culture background of the Country Education Movement and the education belief contained in the folk culture. Second, practice and application. In the Country Education Movement, the intellectuals took advantage of and meliorated the existing folkloric culture, such as folk culture, folk customs, folk entertainment, to edify and enlighten the public. On the other hand, they complied these folkloric culture into the textbooks so that the students could accept these knowledge better. Chapter five: The Country Education Movement motivated the theory system of the folklore to develop further. First, the Country Education Movement enhanced the collection and research work of folklore therefore, diversified the study of folklore. Second, the Country Education Movement enriched the system of folklore by collecting and applying the folkloric culture as well as making a large number of works of folklore as a result. Third, the development and systematization of folklore research method in the field. Chapter six: Conclusion. The Country Education Movement is a significant attempt of folk education. Its folk education practice can still be used in the school education and social education for reference. This is an important choice in the innovation of traditional education patterns, which promotes the inheritance and conservation of folk culture and strengthens the ethos and sense of responsibility.