[Yang Lihui] How does China folklore promote the "direction towards the present"?

[Host's note]

An undeniable social fact is that tourism has become a necessary part of today's public daily life.

As a popular type of tourism, heritage tourism mainly refers to a form of tourism that uses "heritage"-a cherished and selective past-as a consumer good.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines "heritage tourism" as "tourism that has deep contact with the natural landscapes, human heritage, art, philosophy and customs of other countries or regions." Quoted from [England] Darren J.

Timothy, Stephen W.

Boyd,"Heritage Tourism", translated by Cheng Jineng, Tourism Education Press, 2007, p.

1) Although researchers have different opinions on the scope of heritage and the definition of heritage tourism, it is an accepted fact that "heritage" is inclusive and can include immovable material heritage such as ancient buildings, rivers, natural landscapes, etc.), movable material heritage such as exhibits in museums, documents in archives, etc.) and intangible heritage such as values, customs, Etiquette, lifestyle, festivals, cultural and artistic activities, etc.) Ibid., p.

3).

Compared with the "folk tourism" or "ethnic tourism" familiar to the folklore community, heritage tourism covers a wider range of areas.

The research on heritage tourism began as early as the 1960s and 1970s, and now it has become one of the hot topics of common concern to many disciplines.

The pioneers active in this field mainly include geographers, economists, management scholars, sociologists, and anthropologists.

Folklore scholars appeared on this stage a little later-the long-established tradition of "looking back" in this discipline and paying attention to cultural relics are undoubtedly the key to preventing folklore scholars from joining modern life.

However, the rapid development of society cannot be ignored.

As folklore scholars increasingly discover that folk songs, folk costumes and even religious dances in villages they were once familiar with are increasingly crossing the boundaries of villages and appearing in the art stages, tourist attractions and commercial advertisements of prosperous cities, the folklore community has emerged.

A big discussion about the nature of folklore and the scope of folklore disciplines has emerged.

The discussion of "folklorismus" in European folklore circles, the debate on "pseudo-folklore" in American folklore circles, and the translation and discussion of a series of Western theories including folklore in China folklore circles have all prompted practitioners of this discipline to gradually broaden their horizons, open their minds, and pay attention to the rapidly changing contemporary society around them with a positive attitude.

Folklore has emerged from "looking backwards" to "facing the present." Regarding heritage tourism, folklore scholars also quickly participated in discussions and research in many disciplines, and achieved remarkable results, such as Regina Bendix, Backstage Domains: Playing "William Tell" in Two Swiss Communities, Peter Lang AG, 1989; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage, University of California Press, 1998; Xu Ganli, Folk Tourism and National Cultural Changes:"Inspection of the Three Villages of Zhuang and Yao in Northern Guangxi", Ethnic Publishing House, 2006), their achievements not only further promoted the turn of folklore to the present, but also contributed to other related disciplines.

Since the mid-to-late 1990s, China folklore has gradually emerged a "present-oriented" shift."Context, Process, Performers and Contemporary Folklore-Performance Theory and the Contemporary Transformation of China Folklore," Folk Studies, No.

1, 2011).

Documentary textual research and textual traceability research have gradually been replaced by ethnography, which conducts field investigations and studies on contemporary folk traditions.

Liu Xiaochun:"From" Folklore "to" Folklore in Context "-The Paradigm Transformation of Folklore Research in China," Folklore Research ", No.

2, 2009), but there is no doubt that this turn still requires a lot of in-depth thinking and practice to move forward further and effectively.

For example, it is important to examine the remaining and changing folk customs in current villages, but folk customs that have been moved beyond the boundaries of the village and entered other commercial, political, literary and artistic contexts through various intermediaries are also in urgent need of specific and in-depth research.

For another example, when young students majoring in folklore are enthusiastically preparing to explore heritage tourism, anime movies, online games and cosplay, what theoretical perspectives and research methods can the subject training of folklore provide them? These also require folk scholars to seriously and consciously reflect and summarize them.

American folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett believes that folklore training is very helpful for her research on tourism, especially since the perspective of performance allows her to pay attention to artists and explore new theories through their reflexivity in acting ("Performing Live: An Interview with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,"Adrian Franklin, Tourist Studies, 2001, vol.

1 3): 211 - 232) Li Jing believes: The perspective of "focusing on the characteristics of folk events" has effectively guided folklorists to regard tourism as an intrinsic part of the development and changes of the festival itself when interpreting the festival space in the tourism context, thus avoiding the problem of simplistic tourism.

See this issue of putting the cart before the horse by simply understanding it as an alienating external factor, or using tourism as the dominant perspective); German folklorist Wolfgang Kashuba believes: Whether in the past or in the present, empathy, engagement and actor orientation have been the methodological advantages of folklore and ethnographers.

Wolfgang Kashuba: "What should folklore mean today? -- European Experience and Perspectives ", translated by Peng Mu," Folklore Studies ", No.

2, 2011); Liu Tieliang believes that the special feature of folklore is that folklorists experience life through modeled folk customs.

Liu Tieliang: " Feeling the Folklore of Life "," Folklore Studies ", No.

2, 2011).

In my opinion, no matter what the specific object of the study is, the study of folklore has the following characteristics: First, it places "folklore"-those living cultures with inheritance in daily life, rather than all daily life-in life The survival and changing state of life is placed at the center of the study; second, it has a thematic empathic perspective of understanding the subject of folklore or "inheritors"; Third, use ethnographic methods to participate in observation and in-depth description of the context and specific process of the survival and change of folk customs, and make a detailed analysis of relevant social relations and discourses; fourth, conduct research from some basic concepts and theoretical perspectives on which the discipline can settle down.

These concepts and perspectives include text, context, inheritance, tradition, collectivity, genre, performance, etc., please refer to Burt Feintuch, ed.

Eight Words for the Study in Expressive Culture.

University of Illinois Press, 2003.

The author has revised it); fifth, a limited glimpse of the leopard, extending from the investigation of cases to the concern and exploration of some basic subject issues in folklore, for example, who are "people"? What constitutes the core of "vulgarity"? What is the significance of folklore and related variant folklore or folklore expression culture) for the community or individual? From folklore to folklore or folklore, what has changed and what has not changed, and why? Are mass tourism and changes in media the main culprits of corrupting folk customs, or can they help protect folk customs? What are the conditions for conversion?…From here, you can and should) further participate in discussions on larger topics such as cultural diversity, globalization and anti-globalization, heritage economics, etc.

The above characteristics form the basis for folklore to participate in the construction of real society and interdisciplinary discussions, and are also its advantages.

With such a sense of discipline and self-confidence established and practicing it conscientiously, whether our research objects are Yangko opera in villages or campus folk songs on the urban stage, tour guides at tourist attractions or players in World of Warcraft...

No matter where the target kites fly, we will grasp the thread of folklore in our hands, and our research will also become an important bridge connecting yesterday and tomorrow.

This group's column is organized based on the above thoughts and pursuits.

It strives to use the current booming "heritage tourism" as a window to further demonstrate and explore the characteristics and potential of folklore in studying this emerging field, and effectively promote the academic turn of China folklore towards the present.

Most of the authors invited to participate in this series of columns have a background in folklore and are engaged in scientific research, teaching and practical protection related to folklore, or although they have been trained in other disciplines, their research methods and problem awareness have a clear folklore orientation.

The first three papers all deal with the relationship between folk customs and state/government to varying degrees.

Li Jing's paper is based on an ethnographic case of the tourism of the Dai New Year Festival in Jinghong City, Yunnan Province.

It vividly describes how local governments and local religious upper-class people influence the expression of festival space and make it appear diverse and complex.

The article focuses on the mobility of power and creativity in the use of power, and carefully examines the specific diversity of the characters, the action discourse of the characters themselves, and the "drama" performed by their interactions, thus supplementing and amending the popular practice in academic circles that focuses on festival space.

The one-way power structure analysis is supplemented and revised.

Zhang Qiaoyun's case describes the reconstruction of the Qiang people's folk customs and traditions after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

Disaster tourism and heritage tourism led by the government and rapidly emerging after the earthquake brought the Qiang people back to life, and the Qiang people's traditional folk customs also bloomed with it.

New vitality.

The paper discusses an important topic that is of great concern to both international and domestic folklore circles at present: how to win-win tourism and folk customs protection, and points out that only by correctly understanding the characteristics and differences between folk activities and heritage tourism activities, and making corresponding choices in using and expressing folk culture, can it be possible to explore a path that can not only protect folk customs but also promote their tourism development.

This proposition undoubtedly has a positive inspiration for the protection and utilization of current folk customs in China.

An Deming's paper mainly explores how border tourism can embody and strengthen the awareness and identity of the "country".

Through summarizing and analyzing the tourism types in the China-Vietnam border areas of Guangxi, the article points out that local tourism is a system built with the theme of "border customs".

By using oral art and various other folk resources, and performing various "border elements" through different means, border tourism objectively provides tourists from mainland China with a special venue to feel the boundaries of their own country and strengthen national awareness.

From the unique perspective of border tourism, the paper contributes to an in-depth examination of the complex diversity of national presence and the formation of national consciousness.

The author's paper brings the narrative performances of tour guides, which are rarely noticed by domestic folklore, into the perspective of observation.

Through field research on the guide's lyrics of the Wa Palace Scenic Area in She County, Hebei Province and the narrative performances of individual tour guides, it displays the specific manifestations and characteristics of mythism in the context of heritage tourism, and advocates researchers to integrate the entire life process of myth for an overall study.

The last article in the column comes from the tourism development practices of American public folklorists.

Dr.

Willie Smyth is an accomplished public folklorist in the United States.

He has long been helping local communities in Washington State with cultural heritage protection.

His article carefully demonstrates how American folklorists use professional knowledge to help local communities develop cultural heritage tourism projects and solve problems faced in the tourism development process.

It will be of great reference significance to the public practice of China folklore scholars.

Column host: Yang Lihui)(This article was published in Folklore Research, No.

1, 2014)

[Column of Folklore Studies, Issue 1, 2014] Heritage Tourism: The Perspective and Practice of Folklore

·[Yang Lihui] How does China folklore promote the "towards the present" shift? (Moderator's comments)

·[Li Jing] Impressions of "Water-Splashing Festival": Ethnic minority festival tourism intertwined with national, local and folk ceremonies

·[Zhang Qiaoyun] Rebirth from "Difficulties": A case study of disaster tourism and heritage tourism in a Qiang village

·[An Deming] Experiencing the Border of a Country-Taking Tourism in the China-Vietnam Border Area in Guangxi as an Example

·[Yang Lihui] Mythism in the context of heritage tourism-centered on the guide's lyrics and the guide's narrative performance [1]

·[William Smyth] Cultural tourism and intangible cultural heritage in Washington State [1]