Haiyangdongwu Stories
01 · Historical Records
The representative transmitter of the Dongtou sea-animal stories is Chen Yichen, born in 1904. The sea-animal stories current in Dongtou county began to attract attention from the 1980s; more than two hundred were collected, and their publication caused a great response, praised by experts and scholars of folk literature as opening a new field for Chinese folk stories and as extremely precious for the study of folk stories.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Sea-animal stories are folk stories with sea animals as their protagonists, a special and distinctive category among Chinese animal stories. The formation and spread of sea-animal stories at Dongtou have a history of at least nearly two hundred years. The migrants of the Dongtou islands came respectively from southern Fujian and the counties around the Wenzhou area; Dongtou is a place of fusion of Minnan culture and Dong'ou culture, and the Dongtou fishing ground is the second largest in Zhejiang. Special historical origins and geographical advantages enabled the Dongtou sea-animal stories to arise and spread. Besides this, quite a few young people among tour guides and students have also learned to tell them. The sea-animal stories have important functions: one, cognition, the telling of the habits of sea animals in the stories being a textbook of sea-animal science; two, education, the clear sense of right and wrong in the stories having realistic edifying significance; three, reading, the sea-animal stories being extremely loved by young readers; four, boosting economic development.
Sea-Animal Science Stories
Stories telling of the habits of sea animals, serving as a textbook of science.
Selected Sea-Animal Stories
The collections of sea-animal stories collected and published since the 1980s.
Dongtou Island Folk Stories
The more than seventy Dongtou island folk stories collected and collated by Xu Gencai.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The sea-animal stories circulate with Dongtou county in Zhejiang as their centre; Dongtou is a place of fusion of Minnan culture and Dong'ou culture and the Dongtou fishing ground is the second largest in Zhejiang, and the special history of migration and the geographical advantages enabled the sea-animal stories to arise and spread.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present there are still a dozen or so old people who can tell such stories.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Gencai 05-2016
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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