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Social Science Folklore & Mythology

Saving the Nation through Culture

The Folklore Movement in Republican China

by (author) Jie Gao

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2019
Category
Folklore & Mythology, General, China
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774838382
    Publish Date
    Apr 2019
    List Price
    $65.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774838412
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $32.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774838399
    Publish Date
    Sep 2020
    List Price
    $34.95

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Description

The Modern Chinese Folklore Movement coalesced at National Peking University between 1918 and 1926. A group of academics, inspired by Western thought, turned to the study of folklore – popular songs, beliefs, and customs – to rally people around the flag. Saving the Nation through Culture opens a new chapter in the history of the Folklore Movement by exploring the evolution of the discipline’s Chinese branch. Gao reveals that intellectuals in the New Culture Movement influenced the founding folklorists with their aim to repudiate Confucianism following the Chinese Republic’s failure to modernize the nation. The folklorists, however, faced a unique challenge – advocating for modern academic methods while upholding folklore as the key to the nation’s salvation. Largely unknown in the West and underappreciated in China, the Modern Folklore Movement failed to achieve its goal of reinvigorating the Chinese nation. But it helped establish a modern discipline, promoting a spirit of academic independence that influences Chinese intellectuals today.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Jie Gao is an assistant professor of history at Murray State University in Kentucky. Her work has appeared in several journals and books in Canada, China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.