Social Science Folklore & Mythology
Saving the Nation through Culture
The Folklore Movement in Republican China
- 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
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
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.