Modern Nanjing Festivals Folk Change Research

The Seasonal festival is an important part of Chinese folk culture which is closely related to the time view of the mass in respect of its origin, development and change. The festival is a comprehensive cultural phenomenon, reflecting the diversifications of many fields such as politics, economics, culture, art, religion, social communication, ethnological psychology and so on. Nanjing, where many influential historical events occurred, is one of cities with special status and influence in Chinese modern history. The diversifications of the Nanjing society can be regarded as a microcosm of the Chinese society. For thousands of years, Nanjing has formed its own festival culture derived from its characteristic historical and cultural traditions. However, due to the changes in modern China and the culture shock of western festival, many festival customs in Nanjing such as celebrations, rituals, beliefs, have gradually disappeared.In this thesis, the methods of literature analysis and comparative analysis are used. "Jinling Seasonal Note" by Pan Zongding, "Festival Memory " by Xia Renhu and the thirteenth volume of "Capital History" with the "Customs of Festival" part edited by Ye Chuchuang and Liu Yizheng are the primary literature references. The main research objects are the changes of Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qing Ming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chong Yang Festival during the modern history of Nanjing. The reason for the changes and the connotation of the development is revealed and analyzed.The thesis is divided into five parts. Chapter I is "Introduction", which introduces the purpose of this study, the significance of the concept description, the status of the research topics, methods of the research and the literature sources. Chapter II is the source and comparison of the literatures of Seasonal festivals in Nanjing. Chapter III focuses on the study of the changes of several folk festivals such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qing Ming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chong Yang Festival. In Chapter IV, on the basis of the previous chapter, the reasons of the changes are discussed. The last part is the conclusion that the customs of Seasonal festivals in Nanjing modern history have something to do with the social environment during the time of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Republic of China, when folk-custom was used as a source of power by the government. At the same time, the control of the people's behavior depends on the internalization of minds, which gradually becomes a habit. In order to achieve the unity of motives and effects, one should follow the rules of the development of folk-custom. Therefore, studying the changes of Nanjing in modern history may provide the further methods of protecting the existence of traditional folk customs. It may be also of reference value for the succession of the intangible cultural heritage.