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This Special
Issue of Oral Tradition, as a prospective production
of the cooperative project between the Center for Studies
in Oral Tradition (CSOT) and the Institute of Ethnic
Literature (IEL) of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
(CASS) that initiated in 1999, is the first collection
of papers published in English on studies of oral traditions
of ethnic groups in China.
Having shared the common interest
and orientation to promote Sino-U.S. discourses in oral
traditions, we planned out the bilateral project at
the very first step to introduce recent Northern American
scholarship to Chinese readers, as well as to present
Chinese researches on ethnic verbal art to English readers.
In 2000, seven English papers recommended by Professor
Foley were translated and published in Studies of Ethnic
Literature, a quarterly journal founded in 1983, sponsored
by the IEL to encourage study of oral and written literature
of ethnic groups in China. In this special Chinese Issue
subtitled American Scholarship on Oral Tradition, we
have been fortunate in assembling contributions from
scholars in the States, who have made ground-breaking
interpretations of oral traditions. We also have had
the honor of adding Professor Foley's succinct head
note to each paper, and his insightful perspectives
on the discipline to the addendum in order to show our
readers the new directions in the field. It's worth
mentioning that the issue has been warmly welcomed by
Chinese scholars from relevant disciplines. And now,
we are very happy to see the counterpart issue coming
out in the States. The authors here are all my colleagues,
and the great majority comes from minority ethnic groups,
or with a specialized knowledge of indigenous traditions
and ethnic verbal arts.
From the green grassland of the north, to the lush jungles
in the south, from the coastal areas along Taiwan Strait
in the east, to the "world height" in the
west, there have been 56 official ethnic groups residing
in Mainland China. The largest group, the Han, make
up over 92% of China's vast population, and thus it
is somewhat understandable that when the rest of the
world talks about "Chinese Culture", they
often refers to "Han Culture." Yet, the 55
ethnic minorities, largely inhabiting away on China's
vast frontiers, spreading out 64% of China's territory,
have been struggling to maintain their own languages,
oral traditions, and cultural identities for centuries.
In this English volume, thirteen authors examine oral
traditions from various perspectives. Obviously, no
single collection of papers could adequately cover the
extensive range of traditional expressive arts observed
in the diverse cultures of a country as huge and complex
as China, anyhow, some important genres like epic, myth,
sacred songs, incantation epos concerning Tibetan, Mongolian,
Kirghiz, Manchu, Nahxi, Yi, Miao, and Dong peoples are
represented here. We are aware that these papers revealed,
in some sense, a general situation of diversity, multiformity,
and complexity of oral traditions in China. We are also
aware, without a doubt, that the present issue merely
provides a close-up picture, illuminating Chinese current
scholarship exploring into the roots of expressive cultures
of human beings.
We are confident that the international scholarship
in oral tradition has a promising future, one impetus
is: its leading arena, the Oral Tradition, has been
keen on broadening our vision to other culture, and
sharpening our sense to rebuild the rules of verbal
art. We hope this volume will reach into a new stage
of our discipline toward dialogue and exchange with
others who seek to better understand the expressive
culture of human beings, in particular, through the
discourses in discussing oral traditions of ethnic groups
in China.
Hearty thanks must go first to Prof. Foley; it was his
suggestion that made this volume possible. Much credit
for the publicity of this volume should go to the translators
and the editors. Not only are the subject matters difficult,
but also the original texts with Chinese academic style
do not easily translate into English academic format.
My old friend, Dr. Naran Bilik and his buddies have
made great effort to translate the majority of the papers
into English. As for the editing process, I myself worked
together with John Zemke, Michael Barnes, Kristin Funk,
Heather Hignite, Heather Maring for months, I know how
tough the job was for them. Aaron Tate helped me in
some ways to edit the papers as well. Also, my special
gratitude goes to my colleague Ms. Bamo Qubumo, for
her generous assistance to editors in various ways.
Here we would also like to extend our acknowledgement
to Foreign Affairs Bureau of CASS, especially to Dr.
Pei Changhong and Mr. Zhang Youyun, for the sustentation
fund appropriated to this issue.
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