Jianggu
01 · Historical Records
It arose in the middle and later period of the Qing dynasty and has a history of more than a hundred years to the present day. In the early years of the Republic of China, professional storytelling performers appeared among the people of southern Fujian. In the 1920s Jianggu reached the height of its prosperity.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jianggu is a form of quyi peculiar to the Minnan (southern Fujian) region, current in Xiamen City, Fujian Province, and the areas around it. Jianggu makes use of the rich vocabulary, the distinctive cadences and the proverbs, colloquial sayings, allusions and songs of Minnan to talk of old and present affairs; in this way the listeners, while enjoying the art, naturally take in knowledge of Minnan history, customs and social life, so that it teaches through pleasure and is warmly welcomed by the local people. A Jianggu performer holds a book or a folding fan while performing and talks of old and present affairs in a vivid, lifelike manner, his speech flowing without pause; in the telling he also frequently inserts Minnan colloquial sayings, which is witty and humorous and holds the audience spellbound. The content of Jianggu falls into two large classes, the wenjiang (civil telling) and the wujiang (martial telling). Tales of talented scholars and beautiful women such as The Story of the West Chamber and Dream of the Red Chamber, and official-case tales such as The Bao Gong Case and The Peng Gong Case, belong to wenjiang; war and chivalric romances such as Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, Xue Rengui’s Expedition to the East and Xue Dingshan’s Expedition to the West, together with stories taken from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Waking the World to Instruct and Strange Tales of Astonishment, or local stories, belong to wujiang.
Civil and martial storytelling
The two divisions of Jianggu: civil tales of romance and law cases, and martial tales of war, chivalry and local legend.
Jinbang Hill storytelling ground
The last surviving storytelling ground in Xiamen, kept going after the passing of the older generation of tellers.
Xiamen Jianggu
A book on Xiamen storytelling compiled by Fan Shouchun, part of his effort to preserve Minnan-language oral narrative.
Minnan proverbs woven into the tale
The linguistic hallmark of Jianggu: Minnan vocabulary, rhythm, proverbs, allusions and folk songs woven into the telling.
Broadcast storytelling
Jianggu on the radio, where Fan Shouchun, a veteran Xiamen radio editor, wrote and broadcast Minnan-dialect storytelling.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jianggu has Xiamen as its centre and also reaches Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and other Minnan-speaking areas, while the performers, differing in dialect accent and in lineage, each established a line of their own. In former times the storytelling grounds filled the streets and lanes of Xiamen, with storytellers setting up their stand at temple gates or under banyan trees, the listeners sitting round, and a single book able to be told for several months running; professional storytellers appeared in the early years of the Republic of China, and in the 1920s the art reached its height. From the later twentieth century the storytelling grounds fell off sharply and today only Jinbang Hill remains; Jianggu has also extended from the open storytelling ground to the radio station, where Fan Shouchun has broadcast Jianggu in the Xiamen dialect since 1991, and has compiled and published books such as Xiamen Jianggu and held Jianggu apprenticeship training classes, and has also performed Jianggu in Singapore. The protecting unit is the Siming District Cultural Centre of Xiamen (the Siming District Cultural Heritage Conservation Centre of Xiamen).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today the older generation of Jianggu performers has passed away one after another and only a single storytelling ground, Jinbang Hill, survives; this folk art form full of Minnan local character is in danger and urgently needs rescue and protection. Fan Shouchun (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1928, native of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. He was originally a senior editor at the Xiamen Broadcasting Station, with a deep grounding in Minnan; he then devoted himself to collecting the relevant historical material and, working mainly with subjects drawn from Minnan heroes of ancient and modern times and the deeds of well-known figures, made use of the rich and vivid Minnan dialect to create and broadcast Jianggu in the Xiamen dialect. From 1991 onwards he was active on the Jianggu programmes of the major radio stations. In addition, he attached great importance to the continuation of Jianggu and of Minnan culture: he compiled and published books such as Xiamen Jianggu, issued three thousand copies of the disc of Minnan Songs and Rhymes, provided the voices for animated works such as Minnan Jianggu and Minnan Nursery Rhymes, took part in writing the script of the television publicity film Listening to Old Tales by the Sea, held Jianggu apprenticeship training classes, performed Jianggu in Singapore, and carried forward the art of Xiamen Jianggu and Minnan culture. Representative inheritor of Jianggu of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Fan Shouchun 05-2508
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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