Tanzhenshan Folk Tales
01 · Historical Records
Tan Zhenshan, male, a famous folk story-teller, was of native place Hebei and was born on the tenth day of the eleventh lunar month, 1925, in Taipingzhuang village, Luojiafang township, Xinmin, Liaoning. Tan Zhenshan lived and laboured for eighty years on the black earth that brought him up, and has told stories to everyone at the fields, on the kang, at the street corner and before the door for more than twenty years. He was first discovered during the folk-literature integration survey in the late 1980s, and folk-literature workers recorded the folk stories he told. In 1988 Selected Stories of Tan Zhenshan, jointly edited by Shenyang and Xinmin county, was published, including fifty-three folk stories told by Tan Zhenshan. In 1992 Tan Zhenshan, at the invitation of the mayor of Motono, Japan, went to Japan to take part in the World Folk Art Exposition and told Chinese folk stories to scholars from Japan, India, Korea, Italy, Germany and other countries. From 1989 he was engaged as an out-of-school counsellor for the primary and middle schools of Luojiafang township in Xinmin, and in 1989 he was named an outstanding folk story-teller by Liaoning.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tan Zhenshan's home is at the north-easternmost end of the junction of Faku county, Xinchengzi district of Shenyang and Xinmin, a village of immigrants from the Xianfeng reign of the Qing whose residents came from Shandong, Henan and Hebei. Tan Zhenshan can tell six hundred folk stories, mostly legends of scenery, tales of ghosts, foxes and spirits, legends of historical figures and stories of life and jokes. The stories he tells have drawn the attention of scholarly circles at home and abroad; Professor Chen Yiyuan of Chung Cheng University in Taiwan and his students have twice come to Tan Zhenshan's home to make recordings. Tan Zhenshan is the first of the folk story-tellers to lecture in a university. He is the representative figure of the oral literature of the Liaohe region. Tan Zhenshan is now eighty years old; though his oral literature has been partly recorded, this is not enough to reflect it in full.
Selected Stories of Tan Zhenshan
Jointly edited and published by Shenyang and Xinmin county in 1988, including fifty-three stories.
Best Stories of Tan Zhenshan
One of Tan Zhenshan's representative story collections.
Tales of Ghosts, Foxes and Spirits
One of the main types of story Tan Zhenshan tells.
Legends of Historical Figures
One of the main types of story Tan Zhenshan tells.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tan Zhenshan's stories carry a distinct colour of the Liaohe region. His home lies at the junction of Faku county, Xinchengzi district of Shenyang and Xinmin, a village of immigrants from the Xianfeng reign of the Qing whose residents came from Shandong, Henan and Hebei, and the stories he tells are mostly legends of the scenery of the northeast, tales of ghosts, foxes and spirits and stories of immigrant life, combining the narrative flavour of inside and outside the pass.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
These stories are transmitted basically through family and friends. He is now a member of the Liaoning Folk Literature and Art Association. At present, although Tan Zhenshan folk stories have a few transmitters, they can only tell part of them, and if the stories in Tan Zhenshan's memory are not recorded and salvaged as soon as possible it will be a lasting regret.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tan Zhenshan 01-0015
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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