Toward New Perspectives in Safeguarding Folk Culture
Toward New Perspectives in Safeguarding Folk Culture
CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS BY
Chao Gejin (Chogjin)
Professor & Ph. D. in Folklore
Deputy-Director General
Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
On the occasion of the
Opening Ceremony of the Third International Conference on Epic Janggar
11 September, 2006
Respected experts, dear colleagues, respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen:
Janggar, as one of the Three Grand Epic Traditions in China, has been listed into the First Group of National Masterpieces of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the State Council. This reputation follows naturally genuine distinction, conferring superiority.
Most Scholars, domestic and International, have come to an agreement that epic Janggaroriginally derived from and spread over the Oirat peoples both in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang of China and in Kalmuck Republic on the bank of Volga River in Russia. For centuries, this heroic song has been passed down through singing or recitation by Janggarchi, or epic singers from generation to generation. With the reinforcement of interactive participation for transmission among Mongolians, it continues to develop and evolve as a flourishing creative performance tradition with spectacular structures, great momentum, multitudinous figures, cliff-hanging plots, dynamic orality, and graceful metrics. Accordingly, this oral epic tradition demonstrates the living treasures of folk culture, reflecting the broad and deep spectrum of poetic wisdom of the Oirat Mongols.
The epic, known as Janggar, not only embodies a magnificent heroic storytelling, but also unfolds a great oral narrative tradition. This time-honored oral epic, as intangible heritage, has been orally transmitting among folks, and has been often, in the singing of competent Janggarchi, highly finished performances as traditional folkways in local communications and public discourses. It is regarded as an irreplaceable encyclopedia of indigenous knowledge structured reflection to multiple dimensions of historical memory, cultural identity, social ideality, and so forth.
In its formation and development, epic Janggar primarily exhibited strong cohesion in traditional story-patterns and oral formulas by absorbing narrative sources and expressive skills sharing by other oral genres, and also a constant inspiration for other art forms. It epitomizes the achievements of traditional Mongolian folklore and oral culture. On the other hand, epic Janggar possesses its uniqueness in storytelling centered on hero Jangguar and his brave warriors,an obvious fact which indicates that the multiform oral narratives come down to a terrific “epic cycle.” In short, it draws a parallel to any a well-known epic tradition in the world.
As for the interdisciplinary and international studies in epic tradition of Janggar,we’re happy for celebrating a history of scholarship over 200 years. And we’re more than happy for being aware of such a fact that Janggar studies, in the past decades in and out of China, also yielded rich outcome in collecting, recording, editing, introducing, translating, publishing, and research. Having taken a great deal of efforts in different levels, scholars and institutions have brought epic Janggar into the living treasure of universal cultural heritage of humanity, while its great influence going beyond ethnic groups, regions, and nations.
Dear colleagues, as you have known, Mongolian epic singing has been still a living tradition in China; Janggar is unique as a mainspring of vitality of oral tradition and verbal arts transmitted by generations of minstrel singers and local communities. Consequently, its fluid tradition and dynamic creativity bridge the gap between texts and performance, while providing us with vivid examples for long-term field observations and target studies in finding solutions for dealing with those tough issues emerging from the field of epic studies. I believe, we will be able to make our contribution to international epic studies by drawing up theoretic thoughts and field methodologies from the further explorations into the epic Janggar and its singing tradition.
Today, we have entered into a crucial period when an upsurge of public concern has extended throughout the world, rescuing and safeguarding oral and intangible heritage of humanity; a set of strategies has been implemented from international societies to demotic communities. At the same time, the working mechanism -aimed at ensuring the viability of the epic Janggar, including the promotion, protection, transmission, research, as well as the revitalization of the various aspects of this oral heritage- has been just unfolding. I’m delighted to say, we have been take efforts to create a new model of partnership in production of knowledge in order to face up to such a new historical opportunity for plural cooperation between academic institutions, governmental departments, public societies, and local communities, as well as the inheritors/bearers/practitioner of oral and intangible cultural heritage. The present “Local Action Plan” as IEL’s cognitive practices, operating experience, and probing steps in creating its working model of “Archive／Base／Network” has not only unfolded the promising possibilities, but also set forth an invitation to reflexive sociology in indigenous knowledge toward new perspectives in how to sustain cultural diversity, cultural vitality, and cultural liberty, as well as in how to boost international discourse and mutual understanding between different academic tradition.
Last but the least, the IEL looks forward to working closely together with the international and domestic scholars and institutions in safeguarding our common heritage.
I wish the conference and the forthcoming field trip much success.
And I wish our participants enjoy the time in Xinjiang.
Thank you all.