Frank Kouwenhoven
CHIME Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

China harbours more than six hundred living regional traditions of story-telling and story-singing. There is an amazing variety of different expressive forms, ranging from street circus with animal shows to so-called ‘national’ epics of various ethnic peoples. Among the hundreds of local terms for genres found in China, intriguing names circulate, such as ‘Talking bamboo’, or ‘Clapper gossip’ and many more. The context varies from rural to urban, from ritual to secular, and from professionally trained artists to lay priests and beggars. Some genres are sung throughout, some rely on speech, or on a mixture of both. The narrative content derives from a wide range of sources, from ‘classical’ novels to religious scriptures.
This presentation does not aim to provide a broad survey, but will briefly examine the ritual origins of storytelling, will juxtapose some well-known ‘high-brow’ forms with more rudimentary types of storytelling, associated with rural society and low life. The presentation will also briefly discuss the impact of Communist politics on Chinese storytelling in modern times.