JianiWen/0029958/2018MDES RECOVERING CHINESE FOLKLORE HAN FOLK LITERATURE & FOLK RELIGION Contents I. Acknowledgement p.01 II. Abstract p.03 III. List of Figures p.05 IV. Introduction p.07 1. Overview 2. Problem Statement 3. Literature Review V. Theoretical Framework p.20 1. Background 2. Problem Statement 3. Literature Review VI. Research Design p.34 1. Constellation of Context 2. Literature Review 3. Case Study VII. Methodology p.48 1. Overview 2. Questionaire 3. Data 4. Design Potentials VIII. Research Result p.34 1. Review 2. Ideas 3. Discussion 4. Final Design IX. Conclusion p.88 VIII. References p.91 I would like to thank all of my instructors at NSCAD, especially Rudi Meyer, Michael LeB- lanc and Christopher Kaltenbach. Without their help, I would not have been able to finish this thesis project. I also thank all of my classmates in the MDes program. I will never forget how much encouragement and help you gave me. I am glad to study with you during this stressful but fantastic Acknowledgement adventure. Finally, I would like to thank my fami- ly and my friends, who supported me throughout my studies. Thank you so much! ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 02 Chinese folklore is a field encompassing a wide spectrum of folk culture including literature and religion. Chinese folk literature is spread by educated folklorists and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Chinese folk religion is the realm of the masses. Chinese literature was taken as an academic discipline in the early 1920s but its popularity was later diminished in academia because of the political ideology at the time. Folk culture has lost a lot of documentation since the years of World War II and the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. In addition, the main problem is that Chinese people misunderstood folk religion, and it has Abstract been misused for commercial purposes, which has negatively impacted folk religion’s reputation. Nowadays, young Chinese are more open minded to explore traditional culture so it is a good time to bring Chinese folk culture back to the community. In this project, I will be focusing on exploring the design potential in terms of encouraging people to interact with, and increase their understanding of Chinese folk religion. Folk religion and folk literature are important parts of Chinese traditional culture and I wish to help revive them thorough doing research and design. ABSTRACT 04 Figure. 29 Fig. 41 Sketch of design “Blue print of your Techinique Drawing of Children’s Book Figure 13 Lunch” List of Fihures Three popsicles in detail Figure 1 Fig. 42 The Power of The Communities. Poster igure 14 Fig. 30 Rounded Edges of Children’s Book of Folksong Studies Movement (歌谣学运 100 Popsicles Tschang O and East Rabbit & Western 动) in 1918 Turtle Fig. 43 Figure 15 Selected Hinge to Combine The Chil- Figure 2 Zao Fu series book (Qiu Junjie) Fig. 31 dren’s Book Men God. A god in the Han Chinese folk Natcha (left) and Amber Hou I Shoot- religion Figure 16 ing Suns (right) Fig. 44 Taoism Charm The Children’s Book Figure 3 Fig. 32 Lights Off People criticized Taoism Figure 17 Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden 150 Christians’ Confession (Ji Zhengqin) Fig. 45 Figure 4 Fig. 33 The Children’s Book People burned Buddha statues Fig. 18 Prototype of 3D Book Light On Tea in New Life (Yang Ruiting) Figure 5 Fig. 34 Fig. 46 Yuanshitianzun Figure 19 Hidden Information Book A Chapter of the Chinese folk novel Inves- Tencent Questionnaire The Suitcase of characters Card titure of the Gods Figure 20 Fig. 35 Fig. 47 Figure 6 Weibo Sketch ideas Character Nvwa Investiture of the Gods The Oldest Version in Ming Dynasty Figure 21 Fig. 36 Fig. 48 Wechat Four Words Dictionary in Chinese Character Jingwei Bird Figure 7 Distribution of the Han Chinese in China Figure 22 Fig. 37 Fig. 49 Qustionaire (question1-8) Ther Front Page of Children’s Book Character Gonggong and Zhurong Figure 8 Chapter Heaven Parade to against Buddhism Figure 23 10*10 in Fig. 50 Qustionaire (question9-16) Character Notcha Figure 8 Fig. 38 Demographic characteristics of folk Figure 24 Ther Front Page of Children’s Book Fig. 51 religion adherents in mainland China and Qustionaire (question17-21) Chapter Underground Taiwan A Child play with Chinese folktales 10*10 in Children’s Book in School Fig. 25 Figure 9 Acceptance of folk practices Sanyi religion Fig. 39 Fig. 52 Fig. 26 Ther Front Page of Children’s Book Children Play With Chinese Folktales Fig. 10 Sanyi religion Acceptance of folk art (such as dance, Chapter Ocean Children’s Book at Home music and decoration) 10*10 in Figure 11 Fig. 53 Ling Zhaoen Fig. 27 Fig. 40 A Child play with Chinese folktales The founder of Sanyi religion Where do people know Chinese folklore The Prototype of The Front Page Children’s Book Chapter Ocean Figure 12 Fig. 28 Laser Cutting Onmyoji Game Acceptance of folk taboo custom 10*10 in 05 LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF FIGURES 06 Introduction Folklore is a cultural phenomenon that is created, enjoyed and popularized by people. It has characteristics of sociability, inheritance, nationality and regionality. Chinese folklore is divided into two parts: folk literature (educated people) and folk religion (commoners). Both folk literature and folk religion are considered only popular for low- class people in the ancient China, but this situation has changed since the social status of scholars and students rose up. Chinese literature was developed as an academic discipline by scholars in early 1920s but its popularity was later diminished in academia during the Cultural Revolution. According to Hu Fenggang and Yang Anning’s research, currently, scholars prefer the term folk religion as “popular Fig. 1 The Folksong Studies Movement was initiated religion” because it is the most prevalent in Chinese The Power of The by a group of professors and students at history and has a great number of followers (Hu & Communities Peking University and lasted over eight Yang, 2012). Poster of Folksong years. Folklorists, scholars and writers who are 歌 Studies Movement ( traditionally despised by the upper class devoted Chinese folk literature was originally close to the 谣学运动) in 1918 themselves to the investigation and collection of Retrieved from:http:// heart of educated people in ancient China because folk literature and mass culture, and produced shszx.eastday.com/node2/ rich research on a wide variety of folk songs, studying folk literature requires reading and writing node4810/node5210/ skills. According to An and Yang, the onset of node5214/node5/u1a49109. folktales and myths (An & Yang, 2015). Chinese folk literature in the academia field html originated in the Folksong Studies Movement (歌 Opposite to the development of folk literature, 谣学运动) in 1918, which is the first movement the study of folk religion has been restricted in belonging to the May Fourth Movement. In the May Fourth Movement which was an anti- Folksong Studies Movement, spoken language is imperialist, cultural, and political movement used in folklore literature in order to communicate growing out of student movements in Beijing on stories to commoners, as opposed to the written May 4, 1919. According to Lee Haiyan’s research, language of the elites. Fig.1 is one of the political folk religion was regarded as the expanded branch posters to unite people in this movement. of Confucian culture which had been rendered invisible. In order to achieve the agenda of the movement: the liberation of women, individuals and the nation. Chinese folk religion involves many disciplines (Lee, 2005). 09 INTRODUCTION / OVERVIEW 10 Mingjian Zongjiao Chinese folk religion was known Chinese folk religion is a folk as Mingjian Zongjiao or Mingjian institution which belonged to Xinyang in Chinese. Even though, commoners in ancient China. it merits research from the perspec- Chinese folk religion has had tive of social, scientific and religious a great number of followers studies, there is as yet no consensus over thousands of years in ancient about what folk religion actually China and is still popular in rural is. Folk culture studies lost a lot areas of China today. As relating of documentation after the World to Chinese culture inherently, it War II and during the Cultural represents the core in believers’ Revolution in the 1970s. According practices and theoretical philosophy. to Fenggang Yang’s (2012) research, For example, as shown in Fig. 2, Chinese folk religion is a belief and “Men” is the household god in practice that is separate from world ancient China and functions as a form of security in folklore culture. It is the most prevalent god in Chinese folk religion for protecting people against evil. People usually put posters featuring “Men” on the exterior doors of their homes. This folk religion practice indicates that security in ancient China was important to the culture. Its expression is still very popular in rural areas of China today. 11 NTRODUCTION / OVERVIEW 12 Fig. 2 Men God A god in the Han Chinese folk religion Retrieved from: http://www.confucianism.com.cn/html/A00030007/18720623.html As shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, religious culture in China was completely wiped out during the course of the Cultural revolution, which is the greatest disaster of any time in traditional Chinese culture. In this period of time many temples were destroyed, many books and antiques were burnt to ashes, and, more importantly, the thinking of “folklore is superstition” was deeply embedded in Chinese people and still contribute to the way of thinking today. Fig. 3 (the upper image) People criticized Taoism Retrieved from: http://fo.ifeng.com/news/de- tail_2014_07/10/37270834_0.shtml Fig.