[Liu Daxian] Intangible cultural heritage business
A strange traveler accidentally came to Ganzhuang Mountain in Tianyang County, Guangxi.
If he was in time for a certain festival, he would definitely be confused by what he saw in front of him: A large number of villagers from nearby flocked to carry offerings to Buluotuo.
Stallers selling various commodities shouted loudly.
Police and local government officials who maintained order stood up from time to time to say a few words, but no one listened to them.
Amid the sound of horns in the square at the foot of the mountain, sacrificial cigarettes had been raised, and a train roared past the temple of the gods halfway up the mountain...
The stranger was surprised because the travel manual clearly told him that Ganzhuang Mountain was the place where the ancestral spirits of the Zhuang nationality lived.
Legend has it that the temples of Buluotuo and Muliujia, the ancestors of the Zhuang nationality, were on this hill with an altitude of only more than 300 meters.
How can there be a train in the ancestral land to destroy the "feng shui"? How can official personnel be present in folk sacrifices? How can we mobilize, operate and integrate such a massive organized event? The traveler's question will actually lead us to thinking about the mythical construction and cultural development of Ganzhuang Mountain.
It will also allow us to have a glimpse of the various aspects of its manufacture, invention, inheritance, protection, development and utilization in the context of intangible cultural heritage becoming "politically correct" cultural discourse.
We will find an interesting process: myths turn into legends, legends turn into history, and history is further built into reality in the midst of storms.
In the surging wave of "intangible cultural heritage", this case actually has universal significance.
Buluotuo: From myth to reality
Buluotuo was originally a mythical figure circulated in the oral and scattered narratives of the people in Hongshui River, Youjiang and Zuojiang Zhuang areas in Guangxi.
In addition to general oral circulation, there are also manuscripts of "Ancient Zhuang characters" and "Tufang characters" that have been circulated, mostly preserved and used by folk Daogong, Wugong and folk singers.
In traditional religious activities among the Zhuang people, Duke Tao and Duke Wu read or sing the Buluotuo epic as scriptures and teachings to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters, petition and pray.
Since the 1950s, the local cultural department, with the support of national cultural policies, began to collect and organize the Buluotuo myth and its epic.
In 1958, the editorial office of the Zhuang literary history in Guangxi collected the scattered "Lu Tuo Gong Gong" scattered in counties in western Guangxi and later renamed it "Baoluotuo").
Since then, various poems of Buluotuo were successively collected.
In 1986, after the establishment of the Leading Group and Office for the Compilation and Publication of Ancient Books of Ethnic Minorities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it confirmed that "Buluotuo" was a Zhuang witch scripture poem, and formally and organized a rescue collection and sorting of the manuscripts of "Mo Jing Buluotuo" from various parts of the Zhuang nationality.
The 1991 "Translation of Buluotuo Sutra and Poetry"[1] and the 2004 "The 2004" Translation of Zhuang Mo Jing Buluotuo Photocopy "were published as the results of systematic collation of the Buluotuo myth, and have the color of official and academic recognition.
In the process of sorting out, no matter how to maintain the original appearance, deletion, screening, and decoration cannot be avoided.
The myth of Buluotuo itself has a process of change.
In the current epic of Buluotuo, he is both the ancestor and the god of creation.
However, in other folklore, the god of creation is Pangu or Mullujia, while Buluotuo's status is not so high, and the relationships between various gods are intertwined.
This is the confusion that inevitably arises in the spread of folk oral traditions across different regions, populations, and situations.
Oral legends are inconsistent, contradictory, local differences, and logical chaos, which undoubtedly give the organizer a headache.
If there is a text record, it will be much more "reliable".
Later,"Buluotuo Sutra Poetry" is more integrated from the written records of Shigong's singing books.
Among them, Mu Liujia became Buluotuo's wife, and he also had many subordinates that could be assigned, such as Nine-headed Flood Dragon, Four-faced King, Four-legged King, Nine-headed Fairy, Nine-headed Bird, etc._a mythological system that took shape slowly.
The elevation of Buluotuo's status roughly reflects the mythological transition from matrilineal society to patrilineal society.
[3]In a society that has been dominated by men since then, Buluotuo's status as a clan chieftain was strengthened and continued-until liberation, the Zhailao system still existed in the Zhuang inhabited areas in western Guangxi-and there is mutual reliance between reality and its mythical signifier.
When researchers later concluded that "Buluotuo is both a social god evolved from a natural god, and a folk religious god evolved from a ancestor god.
It is the god of creation generally believed by the Zhuang people since ancient times and the highest god who advises the world to do good, exorcizes evil, eliminates disasters, and helps the world to bring blessings"[4], we can roughly say that this is actually compressing time, integrating Buluotuo, who has clues of historical development and in different contexts, into one image.
Therefore, Such Buluotuo naturally has multiple faces, multiple functions and multiple identities.
Among the various aspects, the most valuable one is undoubtedly the "ancestor of the Baiyue Liao people".
This value also includes many aspects: cultural identity and then economic development, spiritual conversion and then industrial development.
On the front page of the "Zhuang Online" website, which has the greatest influence on the Zhuang people, there is an eye-catching window that says,"What is the Zhuang nationality?" "What are officials?" Then, it was explained that the Zhuang nationality is a direct descendant of the Baiyue people, the most populous ethnic minority in China with more than 17 million people.) It is a typical representative of the Zhuang-Dong language people.
The Zhuang nationality is a cousin of the Cantonese people and Guangfu people, and a cousin of the Thai people, Lao people, Dai people, and Shan people.
The "Liao people" are distributed among the Zhuang, Buyi and Dainong people in southwestern China and northern Vietnam.
From the perspective of historical origin, language, culture, customs and distribution, they are the same group of people with more similarities than individuality.
They generally call themselves "Bu Liao" Bouxraeuz, our people).
Once Buluotuo was portrayed as the ancestor of Baiyue, he would have the same status as the Yellow Emperor in the Yellow River Basin and the Yan Emperor in the Yangtze River Basin, and would become the origin of civilizations in many Southeast Asian countries in the Pearl River Basin and even across borders.
In this way, his cultural significance and commercial potential value are self-evident.
How to use myths? All that is needed is an opportunity, even if it is a very accidental reason.
In June 2002, Zhuang cultural celebrity Gu Di went to the Baise Basin to inspect and collect customs, and excitedly "discovered" the "ruins" of Buluotuo in Ganzhuang Mountain in Nagantun, Liulian Village, Baiyu Town, Tianyang County! His basis is as follows: 1.
On Ganzhuang Mountain, there is the ruins of the Buluotuo Sacrificial Temple, which is called "Zugong Temple" by local people.
2.
The name of Ganzhuang Mountain,"Ganzhuang", means Zhuangren Cave.
3.
The "Ganzhuang" song fair is the largest song fair in Guangxi and the largest sacrifice to Buluotuo in Guangxi.
4.
There are many ancient human sites in Tianyang County.
The Laikui Site, one of the three major ancient human sites in the Baise Basin, is located in Tianyang.
5.
Tianyang was originally known as Zengshi County.
It was the earliest county established in the Baise area.
The Zhuang people gathered together with cultural resources.
Mrs.
Wa, the famous anti-Japanese heroine of the Ming Dynasty, lived in Tianyang.
[5]Most of the points put forward by Gu Di are subjective speculations and emotional recognition.
If there were no business planning, media follow-up and local government intervention thereafter, this would be just an anecdote of a literati's passion.
However, after Gu Di returned to Nanning, he excitedly met with Peng Yang, president of the Nanning International Folk Song Art Academy, and reporters, and announced his astonishing discovery to everyone.
"Nanning International Folk Song Art Research Institute" is actually a cultural planning and advertising company, but the backbone of this company is mostly composed of influential writers, scholars and successful entrepreneurs in Guangxi.
Another brand of its is Guangxi Zongheng Cultural Development Co., Ltd.
Liability company.
[6]Reporters naturally like to sensationalize, but cultural businessman Peng Yang realized that this was an excellent opportunity: it is of great significance to demonstrate Ganzhuang Mountain in Tianyang as an ancient residence site of the ancestor of the Zhuang nationality, and will trigger a trend in the development of cultural industries and tourism industries.
He immediately started operations and negotiated with the local government.
As a result, the local governments of Baise and Tianyang reached a consensus with him that academic and cultural packaging methods should be used to leverage the development of Baise's tourism economy.
At the same time, the media also participated in the campaign to build momentum, and through the Internet and other means, formed media events that affected the whole country.
In a short period of time, the County Party Committee and Government of Tianyang County and the Guangxi Nanning International Folk Song Research Institute jointly held three Buluotuo Academic Seminars.[7] Each "seminar" actually has a predetermined theme: that is, to demonstrate that Tianyang Ganzhuang Mountain is the site of Buluotuo, because without academic recognition from a serious and orthodox perspective, mass communication alone cannot create solid legitimacy.
However, the role played by scholars here is quite embarrassing.
They have a gradual transformation process.
From not attending the meeting to finally going through "expert discussions," the positioning of Buluotuo, Tianyang County and Ganzhuang Mountain has been raised to an unprecedented height.
Especially the Guangxi Zhuang Society's multi-angle and multi-disciplinary interpretation of the connotation of Buluotuo culture has played an important role in the systematization and systematization of Buluotuo culture, and laid the academic foundation for the transformation of Buluotuo culture from a small folk tradition to an elite tradition.
The research results and the transformation of the research results became the academic basis for the development of Buluotuo culture in Tianyang County.
The cultural creativity of businessmen, the active participation of the government, and the willingness of scholars to talk have jointly contributed to the transformation of the Buluotuo myth from an oral tradition to a historical site.
The purpose of the academic seminar is to give Buluotuo academic legitimacy from a free, marginal and vague folk subcultural beliefs.
Then transform the "academic Buluotuo" into the "cultural Buluotuo", and then transform the "cultural Buluotuo" into the "tourist Buluotuo", realizing the industrial development of national culture.
The opening monologue of "The Lord of the Rings" said: "History becomes legend, and legend becomes myth." A reverse change has taken place in Buluotuo: myth becomes history, and history is turned into reality.
The entanglement and evolution of "mythology-history-folk customs" gradually become clear through the orderly operation of economic rationality and official will.
Buluotuo's function has changed in the middle: from the sanctity in folklore and beliefs to the secular nature, Mojing Buluotuo's desire to suppress demons and chase out ghosts, and pray for blessings and eliminate disasters still remains, but the performance and entertainment of the public are undoubtedly greatly increased.
The worship of ancestors, distant ancestors, family relatives and cultural heroes has become more gimmicks to attract investment and tourists.
Behind this, there is also an external-in and top-down background, that is, the international cultural heritage craze is heating up.
The reason why local governments do not shy away from possible accusations of "localism" and "nationalism", and the reason why scholars are willing to participate in this new round of "inventing tradition" project is because it is a "politically correct" thing.
On May 20, 2006, Buluotuo Oral Literature was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
This can be said to be a multilateral win-win result.
As for myths, they were originally used to serve reality, whether it is the narration of people's freedom or the reconstruction of officials and businessmen.
Gan Zhuangshan: The Invention and Reconstruction of Multi-dimensional Space
The legend of Buluotuo has spread in a vast area, including in Baise, Tianyang, Tiandong, Pingguo in the Youjiang Basin of Guangxi, and in Bama, Donglan, Fengshan, Tiane, Nandan, Hechi, Yishan, Du 'an and Mashan in the Hongshui River Basin, as well as in Zhuang and Buyi areas in the Yunguinan and Beipanjiang basins.
That is to say, in the vast western Guangxi region, among the scattered places of legends, Buluotuo may be anywhere, but it cannot belong to a specific place.
Buluotuo's settlement in Ganzhuang Mountain was triggered by accidental factors, after careful demonstration, and coordinated by many parties.
When Shi Guoqing began to collect data related to the belief in Buluotuo, he found that no records of Buluotuo and Ganzhuang Mountain in Tianyang County, Guangxi were found in all the historical records that could be found.
Even in the "General History of the Zhuang Nationality" edited by Mr.
Zhang Shengzhen, which has the most comprehensive content and the most authoritative official and official history, no relevant records were found.
Few Zhuang researchers had ever found records of official history.
The "Survey of Singing Culture and Buluotuo Culture in Tianyang and Surrounding Areas in Baise" published in "Zhuang Online" in June 2004 concluded after a survey of Gumei Village, Pohong Town, Tianyang County and its nearby areas: "Locals do not know the legends of Buluotuo and Mulijia.
Like other places in Tianyang County,'Buluotuo' is a new term to local people.
There are some myths and legends circulating in the local area, but they do not mention Buluotuo.
They may have been lost or their names may be different.
Therefore, there are no local sacrifices and sacrifices for Buluotuo." If "creating something out of nothing" is the power of cultural creativity, then how can two things that are originally incompatible be connected?
The little-known Ganzhuang Mountain was habitually called Natun Mountain by local people before the "discovery of the site" in 2002 because it was located in Nagantun, Liulian Village, Baiyu Town, Tianyang County.
It also has another name called Chunxiaoyan.
Legend has it that during the Ming Dynasty, Guo Ziru, a geographer from Jiangxi Province, came here to explore the treasure land of feng shui for the emperor.
He was fascinated by the beautiful scenery.
He wrote the three characters "Chunxiaoyan" and wrote a couplet,"The scenery is bright and the Yan language is ringing at the beginning of spring, and the dawn breeze is moving and the golden flowers are shining, and the dancing partner is singing." This is why Chunxiaoyan got its name.
However, no relevant records have been found in ancient historical records.
This is just a local legend.
What is interesting is not the fact, but the fact that this legend was used by later experts and scholars as a historical fact to demonstrate the myth.
The legend of "Chunxiaoyan" is not long old, but it has established a deep-rooted impression in the hearts of local people.
In April 2004, when "Chunxiaoyan" was changed to "Ganzhuang Mountain", a "change of name change" occurred-local people complained that the government believed that someone had smeared the original inscription "Chunxiaoyan" to destroy cultural relics.
In fact, the word "Chunxiaoyan" was not a monument left by the Ming Dynasty, but was written only in 1999.
On another level that is not known to ordinary outsiders, Ganzhuang Mountain is also nicknamed "Fengliu Mountain".
In 1995, when the Nanning-Kunming Railway passed through this mountain, a tunnel was built as the "Fengliu Mountain Famous Cave".
This nickname may be related to the irregular song fair on the mountain: men and women sing on each other, and occasionally there are sexual affairs.
Naturally, this name does not carry too much derogatory meaning, but in the discourse practice of shaping the habitat of the ancestors, blasphemy and slush are not allowed, so the name of Fengliu Mountain never appears in the media.
The strange scene encountered by travelers where a train roared past the sacrificial site of the ancestral gods was also explained: the railway predates the construction of the Buluotuo Temple.
After the discovery of the "Buluotuo Ancient Residence" by Gudi in June 2002 and was confirmed, Ganzhuang Mountain was included in the joint construction plan colluded by the government and commercial mechanisms.
Ganzhuang Mountain itself is not outstanding in appearance.
From the perspective of a traveler, it really does not have any characteristics, but it can also be called lush with lush forests and beautiful scenery.
The advantage is that from the terrain, the foot of the mountain is relatively flat, forming a natural square.
The most important thing is that there are thousands of people's spontaneous song fair activities [8] here, which provide the basis for further development.
"Annals of Tianyang County" shows that the government has participated in the people's spontaneous singing fair activities at least before 1995, but at that time it may have been more of a mass cultural and sports undertaking.
The original belief space of Ganzhuang Mountain was relatively complex.
The beliefs of the local Zhuang villagers, like most folk religions in China, incorporated various beliefs and obscene sacrifices, mainly Taoism.Before commerce and the government intervened, the Zhuang nationality's native folk religious beliefs-Moism were mainly based on primitive religious beliefs such as soul worship, nature worship, totem worship, and ancestor worship, and supplemented by Buddhist and Taoist beliefs such as Guanyin, Buddha Three Treasures, Taishang Laojun, Peng Zu, Zhang Tianshi, and Eight Immortals.
Moism includes some concepts of Buddhism and Taoism, such as the Three Treasures of Buddha, Lao Jun, immortals, immortals, and five precepts, as well as Buddhist and Taoist rituals and magic content, such as charms and recitation.
Mo Religion is closely related to Taoism with Zhuang characteristics-Shigongjiao and Daogongjiao.
According to the legends of the teachers, Shigongjiao, also known as Martial Arts, belongs to the Meishan Sect of Taoism.
Daogongjiao, also known as Wendao, is said to be formed by the Maoshan Sect of Taoism under the influence of Moism.
In this way, the gods of Ganzhuang Mountain have diversity, and their religious beliefs show multiple and complex hierarchical structures.
Guanyin, Jade Emperor, Maitreya Buddha, Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Monk Buddha, and Tianshi Zhang coexist in the same space and coexist harmoniously.
Buluotuo and Mulujia are, if not insignificant, just two unimportant characters in this system of carnival of gods.
Many people around Daizhuang Mountain even don't know about them).
Before June 2002, in the eyes of the local Zhuang people, Guanyin and Mumang were the same god, except that there was a difference in terms of address between strong and strong men.
Guanyin was the Chinese name and Mumang was the Zhuang name, but sometimes they were called "Guanyin Mumang" together.
At that time, Guanyin Mu Niang had not yet had any contact with Mu Liujia and Buluotuo; after June 2002, due to the recognition of scholars, media publicity and government recognition, Mu Niang first contacted Mu Liujia, and Mu Niang became another name for Mu Liujia.
Buluotuo was the lover of Mu Liujia.
Through Mu Liujia, Buluotuo became the owner of Ganzhuang Mountain.
This is a change in which the gods abdicate and the great gods appear.
Since the "Buluotuo Site" was confirmed and also to highlight its characteristics, the shrine enshrined should naturally be related to Buluotuo.
Because there is no statue of Buluotuo, relevant local government departments first made three god tablets of wood: "Buluotuo Protector Goddess","Mulejiaminiang Goddess" and "Buluotuo Zu Goddess" to highlight the relationship between Buluotuo and Ganzhuang Mountain; and "cleaning" the statues of Guanyin, Guandi, Jade Emperor, Maitreya Buddha and other gods in the caves and temples on the mountain to highlight the Zhuang characteristics of Ganzhuang Mountain.
But not long after September 2002, an incident of "loss of the divine token" occurred: some people who could not accept the fact that the gods had changed, stole new divine tokens and threw them into the grass on the cliff.
This small matter highlights the conflict between the people, the intellectual elite and the government before consensus on interests is reached.
The conflict between gods is actually a personnel entanglement.
On November 15, 2002, the Tianyang County Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Tianyang County People's Government Yang Fa [2002] No.
75 document adjusted and enriched the Buluotuo Cultural Tourism Work Leading Group, and soon entrusted the task of developing and building the Gangzhuang Mountain Buluotuo Resort to Nanning International Folk Song Art Research Institute.
The commission included eleven items including basic case planning and 2003 Tianyang County Buluotuo Cultural Tourism Brand advertising and publicity planning.
Although these projects were not realized one by one, the most important song fair and Buluotuo statue were completed.
Initially, Guangxi sculptor Zhang Ye saw the news that the Buluotuo site was discovered in ancient flute and spontaneously created a bust, but it was not officially recognized.
Later, the development company commissioned Professor Cao Chongen from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to complete the statue, which was placed in the Zugong Temple of Ganzhuang Mountain through the opening of Dao Gong on December 31, 2004.
Before the statue moved in, local people who believed in the original gods engaged in a see-saw game with the official movement to clean up the old gods.
After the statue of Buluotuo going up the mountain was completed, some people who once believed in Guanyin, General Guan Di, and Jade Emperor built a new temple for the original god in Lianfu Village, Qiangzhou Town, Tiandong County, which is close to Tianyang, to house the original god.
They found a reason to reinterpret the world.
For them, building a new temple for the original god and finding a place to rest was another psychological relief.
According to Shi Guoqing's words: "From the abandoned corners of Guanyin, Guandi, Jade Emperor and Maitreya Buddha to the theft and abandonment of the 'Buluotuo God Tablet' under the rocks, from Buluotuo's 'home' to the 'relocation' of Mu Niang and other gods, from the repeated placement of Shenpai statues to the peaceful coexistence of Shenpai statues, the god world of Ganzhuang Mountain used three years to repeat the hundreds and thousands of years of formation of the Zhuang folk religion represented by Moism." What plays a role in this drastic change is undoubtedly the power mechanism-cultural power conspired by commercial profits and official consciousness.
After consultations from many parties, Ganzhuang Mountain was finally formed from an unknown hill where villagers gathered to sing and worship gods for entertainment, to a realistic space where the ancestral Zhuang gods lived in parallel with the "sacrificial hall, song fair and market".
Intangible cultural heritage: The boundary of creative industries
In 2005 and 2006, when Shi Guoqing visited Ganzhuang Mountain again for field surveys, he found that the masses had accepted the dominant position of gods such as Buluotuo and Muliujia.
The government also acquiesced in the existence of Guanyin, Guandi and Jade Emperor.
The gods on the mountain were able to coexist peacefully and the Pantheon was peaceful.
As far as Buluotuo's identity is concerned, it is first the dramatic "discovery" of literary workers, then the immediate intervention of the planning company and the promotion of the media, and finally the response of scholars engaged in Zhuang studies on the "ancient flute topic" and the pursuit of Buluotuo.
In the discourse of intellectuals, Buluotuo transformed from a mythical and legendary figure to a Zhuang ancestor, a Zhuang cultural ancestor and a humanistic ancestor of the indigenous peoples in the Pearl River Basin.
The historical process of myth was realized in just a few months, and the reconstruction of national history has achieved initial results.
With the strong promotion of the government and businessmen, the realization of history has also taken shape on a certain scale in just two years.
This is the result of compromise between all parties.
The folk beliefs of ordinary people are loose and practical, and there is no overly fierce religious pursuit.
The most direct thing that can bring benefits is economic benefits.
In the Buluotuo Sacrifice at Ganzhuang Mountain, religious connotations were diluted while commercial performances were highlighted, and beliefs and religion were diluted into folk customs and performances.
In fact, the development of Ganzhuang Mountain has been a well-planned intangible cultural heritage business from the beginning.
Ganzhuang Mountain had a tradition of singing fair gatherings early on.
According to historical records, the song fair was formed before the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Every year from the seventh to the ninth day of the third month of the lunar calendar, surrounding people gather spontaneously, accompanied by colorful cultural and sports activities such as singing folk songs, lion dances, and hydrangea throwing.
These activities were later understood to commemorate Buluotuo, which was the source of Guangxi's sea of songs.
and the source of the Baiyue National Market.
Song fair activities integrate folk customs.
If they can be combined with belief and worship, they can complement each other.
On the one hand, they can become the physical basis for cultural identity, and on the other hand, they can become a selling point in the tourism industry.
Moreover, if Buluotuo wants to apply for becoming intangible cultural heritage, it will not only receive support from the upper echelon, but also be a local cultural resource, which also requires certain practical preparation.
Therefore, the construction of Buluotuo Faith and the development of Ganzhuang Mountain Song Fair are carried out simultaneously.
During the initial planning and implementation, in addition to hardware construction such as road construction, water supply, electricity supply, temple building, and statue sculpture of gods, the focus of development was mainly reflected in the preparation and holding of the three song fairs.
Government departments came forward to organize singers and operate in a market-oriented manner.
In April 2004, the Buluotuo Song Fair and Folk Culture and Sports Festival in Ganzhuang Mountain in Baise Tianyang was held.
By 2005, the original folk sacrifices had formed a public sacrifice, and everything was standardized.
On April 4, 2006, CCTV's large-scale series "Legendary China Festival" was broadcast live for the first time at Luotuo Ge Fair, which kicked off the brand program that CCTV's Chinese International Channel focused on creating that year.
Soon, Buluotuo Jingshi successfully applied for intangible cultural heritage.
In the game of "official ideology-commercial operations-humanistic tradition", the most significant thing is the change in official attitude.
In fact, not long before the "discovery" of the Buluotuo site, around 2000, Tianyang County once launched a large-scale campaign to "build a spiritual civilized county" across the county.
The county bombed temples and eliminated feudal superstitions.
Thousands of Taoist and Shigong were taken into classes for education.
Two years later, the attitude suddenly completely reversed, and the folk beliefs that were originally regarded as superstitious began to be explored and constructed as a cultural undertaking and cultural industry.
What cannot be ignored is the background of this transformation-the year 2001 that has just passed was the year when the craze for intangible cultural heritage in China started.
On May 18 of that year, among the first batch of 19 "Representative Works of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" announced by UNESCO in Paris, China's Kunqu Opera art was prominently displayed.
Of course, as early as 1972, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Paris, and in 1998 it also launched the "Declaration of Representative Works of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" program.
[9]However, the inclusion of Kunqu Opera in the "Representative of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" has undoubtedly directly stimulated the top-down cultural policy changes in China.
The shaping and development of Tianyang's Buluotuo belief and sacrifice is just a rare example of grass moving with the wind, not to mention that the local government and active commercial promoters have already smelled the possibility of economic benefits behind it.
At this time, there was also a craze of "culture setting the stage and economy singing opera" in various places.
The craze of world heritage applications and public memorial ceremonies was booming across the country.
During the reconstruction of the Buluotuo belief, the local government sent people to visit and study the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in Shaanxi many times.
The design of the Buluotuo statue was based on the statues of the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor in various places; the planning plan for the sacrifice to Buluotuo was based on Shaanxi's sacrifice to the Yellow Emperor.
The program is a model.
The reconstruction of the Buluotuo belief has the same national significance as the reconstruction of the Yellow Emperor belief and the Yan Emperor belief, and reflects the adjustment of cultural policies of governments at all levels.
As a result, a general paradox emerged: the original traditional and folk belief rituals were once regarded by the government as a decadent and declining culture as "feudal","backward" and "superstitious", in the new round of modernization, used by the government or semi-government and invented as a symbol with regional or ethnic community significance.
Sacrifice is such a process of creating symbols, interpreting or reinterpreting symbols, innovating symbols, using symbols, and "materializing" symbols.
From a background perspective, today, as the influence of globalization is deepening, on the one hand, differences between ethnic groups and regions are becoming increasingly prominent; on the other hand, global political, economic, and cultural exchanges and interactions are increasingly breaking down inherent boundaries.
Because traditional folk symbols have the broadest popular base, they are easy to gain universal recognition from the people and officials, and become resources that can be utilized and transformed.
Sacrifice shows different faces here for different objects.
The shaping and public sacrifice of Buluotuo are just one typical example among countless such cases.
In the debate over the identity of ethnic groups in the Pearl River Basin and even Southeast Asia, we can still vaguely see the association and imagination of "soft power" after the collapse of the East Asian tribute system of the Chinese Empire.
[10]
The 1972 World Convention for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage stipulates that world heritage itself must have two basic factors: one is authenticity, that is, the heritage must be original, unique, rather than man-made; the other is integrity, that is, the heritage and its surrounding cultural and geographical environment should coexist harmoniously.
However, those man-made destruction or disorderly development will undoubtedly make the heritage lose its true value of publicity and integrity.
This standard is obviously not qualified for Buluotuo.
However, it is okay to regard Buluotuo as an intangible cultural heritage with China characteristics.
To be precise, it embodies a kind of contemporary China wisdom about cultural heritage-it is a cultural and creative industry.
The invention of the Buluotuo belief, the construction of sacrifices and song fairs are an impulse to create history, a performance of local folk customs, and more importantly, a transition of economic activities.
How to gain its own value in the new round of regional economic model changes needs to be materialized in practice.
Ganzhuang Mountain's Cultural Park is undoubtedly the realization of the dissemination of intangible cultural materials.
In the early campaign activities, the media used various communication methods such as words, images, publishing, television, the Internet, and exhibitions, in terms of time, space, methods, etc.
Three-dimensional combination of use.
A variety of marketing methods and communication methods cooperate to shape cultural sales and brand image.
This is also the marketing method of folk culture in the information age.
This also involves a boundary issue for the creative development of intangible cultural heritage.
From the late Qing Dynasty to the present, more than a hundred years of various movements and thoughts of modernity from the West have caused several generations of China to doubt the thousands of years of China's cultural traditions.
In the so-called "dispute between China and the West, ancient and modern times", in fact, the differences between "China and the West" have been transformed into the differences between "ancient and modern times." Man-made cultural gaps lead to loss at the level of belief.
The result is an apparent multicultural composition, and the root cause is loss and confusion about the parent culture.
Among the modern main body of the "Chinese nation", more "small traditions" full of vitality and connotation are suppressed.
In this sense, publicizing a certain ethnic and folk cultural tradition can be regarded as a kind of cultural prosperity in the open era.
However, on the other hand, modernity has a one-sided color in the current context of China.
Excessive emphasis on linear development and economic supremacy will inevitably lead to the dominance of categories and values such as rationalization, standardization, benefit, speed and efficiency.
It is possible to form a simple fast-food reconstruction and replication of the tradition and unilaterally pursue quantity and utility effects.
China's excellent traditional culture has been accumulated over a long period of time and gradually developed.
Many excellent inheritances and developments have been gradually developed by oral teaching and example over generations, or even dozens of generations.
Certain phased planning will have a temporary sensational effect, and its far-reaching impact may be huge harm, not only causing historical and cultural heritage The public value, or the historical appearance of sites and relics, has been seriously damaged, and has brought serious negative effects on long-term sustainable development.
Creativity, as a way to utilize intangible cultural heritage, shows from the Buluotuo case exactly the strength of instrumental rationality over value rationality: although many symbols and matters of the Zhuang cultural tradition have been spread and promoted in the reconstruction of Buluotuo beliefs and sacrifices, on the other hand, it is the disappearance of the core values rooted in this tradition.
[11]If you attempt to rely on market mechanisms to allocate and utilize intangible cultural heritage, it is obviously short-sighted.
This is a consensus that goes without saying.
However, the problem is that real economic interests may be the driving force behind commercial mechanisms and local governments.
Apart from this, the protection and development of intangible cultural heritage cannot be discussed solely by intellectuals and the public.
Therefore, in many cases, the promotion of intangible cultural heritage has become a Nash Equilibrium finally achieved after all forces compete and compromise with each other.[12]: In economic activities, rational subjects always pursue the maximization of their respective interests, and in the last resort, they can only seek the best permutations.
"Traditional culture" has never been immutable and rigid, but more worried scholars will accuse commercialization or politicization of damaging the "original ecology".
In fact, this is an elitist attitude, or rather, it is a "static","objectification" and "materialization" attitude towards it.
Real folk traditions have never had such concerns.
In fact, more often than not, it is a self-contained activity, only official or talents with various purposes make it a self-contained activity.Once power is brought in, it will inevitably have effects and traditions will be refreshed.
Such a realistic tradition is truly meaningful to the people of the present-that is, what Dr.
Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer called "effect history." [13]Tradition always acts on the present, and the present always creates new traditions in tradition.
[1]Zhang Shengzhen, Nong Guanpin, etc."Translation of Buluotuo Sutra and Poetry", Guangxi People's Publishing House, 1991.
Published in four languages: the original ancient Zhuang characters, Chinese translation, Zhuang language, and Chinese free translation.
[2]Zhang Shengzhen et al."The Xerox and Translation of the Zhuang Nationality Sutra Buluotuo", Guangxi Nationalities Publishing House, January 2004.
[3]Ouyang Ruoxiu, Zhou Zuoqiu, Huang Shaoqing, Zeng Qingquan, Qin Deqing and others have already sorted out the mythological changes of Buluotuo and Muliujia.
See "The History of Zhuang Literature", Volume 1), Nanning: Guangxi People's Publishing House, April 1986, pp.
26-67.
"History of the Development of Zhuang Literature"), Nanning: Guangxi People's Publishing House, September 2007, pp.
93-146.
[4]Qin Naichang, The Tracing of Buluotuo, Nanning: Guangxi People's Publishing House, 2004, p.
148.
[5]Liang Tingwang, Liao Mingjun, et al."Buluotuo: The Ancestral Totem of the Baiyue Liao People", Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, November 2005, pp.
24-16.
[6]The information here comes from Shi Guoqing's doctoral thesis "Restoration and Reconstruction of Folk Beliefs of the Zhuang Nationality in Guangxi-Taking the Study of the Buluotuo Faith in Tianyang County as an Example"(2006), which was later renamed "Research on the Zhuang Buluotuo Faith: Taking Tianyang County as a Case" Religious Culture Publishing, April 2008).
The author has conducted many surveys in Tianyang and Baise and obtained a lot of first-hand information.
Later in this article, he relies a lot on the naming and reconstruction process of Ganzhuang Mountain and does not dare to take advantage of it.
I would like to thank you.
In addition, Shi Guoqing has already seen many key issues in the process of restoring and rebuilding the Buluotuo belief, but for various reasons, he has stopped talking or is vague.
This article will sort out these issues more clearly.
[7]The first time was August 8, 2002; the second time was September 16-17, 2002; the third time was September 24-25.
This kind of intensive seminar obviously has a conclusion in mind and all it needs is evidence.
[8]According to the "Annals of Tianyang County" edited by Qin Shaokuan and Chen Guo, Tianyang Ge Wei began in the Tang Dynasty and has a long history.
There are various legends about the origin of the song fair.
"It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, there was a young man and woman in a nearby village who loved folk songs and often sang folk songs to each other until midnight.
Over time, they fell in love with each other and settled for a hundred years.
The parents of both parties believed that the song pairing would be a lifelong violation of customs and strongly opposed the marriage.
The man and woman climbed Chunxiaoyan on the night of the eighth day of the third month of the lunar calendar.
After singing for a while, they jumped off the cliff hand in hand.
In order to commemorate this young man and woman, on the seventh, eighth and ninth days of the third lunar month every year, young men and women from nearby groups go to Chunxiaoyan to sing folk songs to each other, resulting in the formation of Chunxiaoyan Song Fair." Nanning: Guangxi People's Publishing House, June 1999, pp.
864-865.
[9]Regarding the world's cognition, importance, consensus and practice of "human heritage", especially "intangible cultural heritage" from the 1970s to the early 21st century, Bamoqubu has a special article to sort out in detail.
See his book "Intangible Cultural Heritage: From Concept to Practice","National Art", No.
1, 2008.
[10]For some time, when it comes to policies and policies for cultural undertakings and cultural industries,"soft power" is a common word, roughly referring to those cultural resources that have spiritual appeal, social cohesion, and market attraction in the social and cultural field., ideological influence and psychological driving force.
However, when people are keen on talking about "soft power," they seem to forget the background of former U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph S.Nye when he proposed the concept.
How can soft power have its effects without strong economic and military backing? Imagine Latin America, where "magical realism" once became popular around the world, but have you ever seen its countries play an important role in international affairs? Doesn't Africa have culture? In a sense, soft power is just another Orientalist concept of a strong country.
It is okay to use it for reflection and reference.
If you respect it as Guigao, you are really buying a piece of cake and returning a pearl.
[11]Zheng Qian's article "2008, Presence and Absence" and "China National Daily", December 26, 2008) has a relatively sharp analysis of this: In order to satisfy the gaze of outsiders, on the one hand, local traditional cultural symbols with distinctive national characteristics are selected, extracted, and strengthened, and as explicit symbols of the local identity of cultural products, they are integrated into the new local cultural image being formed; On the other hand, as the "other" of village culture, outsiders 'advance expectations and consumption psychology have become a presence factor that cannot be ignored in the process of building cultural images, regulating the image of new cultural traditions.
In this way, in fact,"reconstruction" is not a subject's self-reliance, but is dictated by foreign culture.
Therefore, people can't help but ask: To what extent can the reconstructed local traditions be integrated into the daily lives of grassroots people, rather than becoming fragments of life floating on the fast-flowing rivers of modernity?
[12]For a popular explanation of Nash Equilibrium, see Wang Zeke's New Edition of Game Theory Pinghua, Beijing: CITIC Press, November 2003.
For the discussion in economics textbooks, see [US] Verdenberg's "Game Theory", Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, October 2002, pp.
10-27.
Nash John.
F) On "non-cooperative games", etc.
See John Nash's Essays on Game Theory, Beijing: Capital University of Economics and Business Press, November 2000, pp.
30-49.
[13]Refer to [De] Hans-Georg Gadamer,"Truth and Method-Basic Characteristics of Philosophical Hermeneutics", Part 2, Section 2,"Basic Characteristics of a Hermeneutics Empirical Theory", Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Press, April 1999.