A Study On The Cultural Inheritance Of "Cuckoo" In Henan Folk

With social development, the protection of intangible cultural heritage gets more attention from both governments and academic research. The long history of traditional folk toys is the result of the cultural inheritance, and it also contributes to the continuity of tradition culture. Folk toys are deeply rooted in the Central Plains’tradition, and have distinctive features in shapes, colors and decorations. However, under the shock of globalization and modern design, the traditional mud toys are facing to crisis, and the relating traditional culture is gradually disappearing, too.This paper is mainly about Ni Gugu in Yang Qi village of Henan province. It focuses on analyzing the art features, producing methods, finding the cultural connotation and meaning, and drawing people’s attention to Ni Gugu and traditional folk culture. On the basis of former research, the author also tries to provide suggestions about promoting the protection of Ni Gugu.The research methods of this paper are mainly based on ethnology combine with arts. In the paper, two questions have been analyzed to promote the protection and developing of Ni Gugu, one question is "what should be inherit" and the other is "how to inherit it".The thesis has been divided into three parts. The first part is an introduction about the reason and meaning of the research, some basic definitions, literature review, and research methods. The second part is from chapter one to three, the first chapter analyzes the natural geographical environment and historical cultural background of Ni Gugu; the second chapter describes the origin, artistic characteristics and production process of Ni Gugu; the third chapter mainly explores three culture related characteristics of Ni Gugu:folk beliefs, auspicious culture and festival customs. The third part contains chapter four and five, chapter four discusses Ni Gugu’s development status of producing, selling and propagandizing; chapter five presents the author’s conclusion of how to protect Ni Gugu, which includes promoting the innovation, protecting relating tradition culture and implementing the productive protection.