FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS FALL 2002 • VOLUME XXIV, NUMBER 4
American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress BOARD OF TRUSTEES ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES Congressional Appointees The American Folklife Center’s Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Chair, Web site provides full texts of Massachusetts many publications, information Mickey Hart, California about AFC projects, multimedia Dennis Holub, South Dakota presentations of selected collec William L. Kinney Jr., South Carolina tions, links to Web resources on Judith McCulloh, Illinois ethnography, and announcements Marlene Myerson, New Mexico of upcoming events. The address Presidential Appointees for the home page is http://www. The American Folklife Center loc.gov/folklife/ Fran Mainella An index of the was created in 1976 by the U.S. site contents is available at http:// Congress to “preserve and present Director, National Park Service www.loc.gov/folklife/afcindex.html American folklife” through pro Sonya E. Medina grams of research, documentation, Deputy Director of Projects The Web site for The Veter ans History Project archival preservation, reference ser Office of the First Lady provides an overview of the project, an online vice, live performance, exhibition, The White House “kit” for participants recording oral publication, and training. The Neal A. McCaleb Center incorporates the Archive of histories of veterans, and a brief Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Folk Culture, which was established pre-sentation of some examples of in the Music Division of the Library Department of the Interior video- and audio-recordings of vet of Congress in 1928 and is now one Librarian Appointees erans’ stories. The address is of the largest collections of ethno Jane Beck, Vice-chair, Vermont http://www. loc.gov/folklife/vets graphic material from the United Norma Cantú, Texas The Folkline Information Ser States and around the world. Tom Rankin, North Carolina vice is now a cooperative an William H. Wiggins Jr., Indiana nouncement program of the Ex Officio Members American Folklore Society and the James H. Billington, Librarian of American Folklife Center. It is Congress available only on the American www. STAFF Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Folklore Society’s server: afsnet.org. The service provides Smithsonian Institution timely information on the field of Administration Eileen B. Mason, Acting Chairman, folklore and folklife, including Peggy A. Bulger, Director National Endowment for the Arts training and professional oppor Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Bruce Cole, Chairman, National tunities, and news items of nation John Lewis, Assistant to the Director Endowment for the Humanities al interest. Acquisitions Jack Santino, President, David A. Taylor, Coordinator American Folklore Society Processing and Cataloging Ellen Koskoff, President, Rosemary Graham, Processing Technician Society for Ethnomusicology EDITOR’S NOTES Todd Harvey, Processing Technician Peggy A. Bulger, Director, Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist American Folklife Center Judy Ng, Processing Technician Celebrations Marcia Segal, Processing Technician Nora Yeh, Archivist, Coordinator David Taylor ’s cover photo Programs FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS graph of Mingo Saldivar cap Michael Taft, Folklife Specialist James Hardin, Editor tures the spirit of this year ’s David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor concerts and other programs at Publications the Library of Congress. Perfor James Hardin, Editor Sheryle Shears, Designer Public Events Peggy Pixley, Production mances of traditional music on Theadocia Austen, Coordinator the Library’s Neptune Plaza Andrew Wallace, Coordinator (sponsored by the American Reference Folklife Center News publishes ar Folklife Center ’s series “Home Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist ticles on the programs and activ grown 2002: The Music of Amer Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, ities of the American Folklife Cen ica” and the Library of Con- Coordinator ter, as well as other articles on gress’s series “I Hear America Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Specialist traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Singing”) have kept audiences Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist tapping their feet, dancing, and Veterans History Project Library of Congress, American Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Director Folklife Center, 101 Independence singing along from April to Peter T. Bartis, Project Manager Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. (Continued on page 19) Sarah Rouse, Program Officer 20540–4610. Folklife Center News Virginia Sorkin, Program Officer does not publish announcements Timothy Roberts from other institutions or reviews Cover: 2002 National Endowment Administrative Officer of books from publishers other for the Ar ts Heritage Fellow Mingo Administrative Office than the Library of Congress. Saldivar on the Library’s Neptune Fax: 202 707–2076 Readers who would like to com Plaza, with Max Bacca (right), in a Reference Service ment on Center activities or concer t of Tex-Mex conjunto music, Tel: 202 707–5510 newsletter articles may address September 19, 2002. Photo by E-mail: [email protected] their remarks to the editor. David A. Taylor
2 Folklife Center News The Power of the Real: The Montana Heritage Project After Seven Years
Montana Governor Judy Mar tz addresses the Montana Heritage Project Student Conference, April 9, 2002, where young researchers presented their gifts of scholarship to the state to be preserved in the Montana Historical Society archives for future researchers. Students take their schoolwork seriously because grown-ups take it seriously. At the head table, from the left: Mark Sherouse (director, Montana Committee for the Humanities); Alexandra Swaney (folk ar ts specialist, Montana Ar ts Council); Brian Cockhill (consultant, Liz Claiborne and Ar t Or tenberg Foundation); Governor Mar tz; Ar t Or tenberg, Montana Heritage Project founder ; and Linda McCulloch (superintendent of public instruction, State of Montana).
Text and Photos by tion Association’s annual con- their hometown the subject of Michael Umphrey ference in Portland, Oregon, Octo- research, tracing across genera ber 16, 2002. For more informa- tions the rise of one the largest The Montana Heritage Project was tion on the Montana Heritage sheep operations in the nation. established in 1995 through a part- Project, visit their Web site at: Drawing on interviews, re nership involving the Library of http://www.edheritage.org. search in bank and museum Congress and a consortium of Mon- archives, and documentation of tana organizations: the Office of “The Montana Heritage Proj- ranching culture today, they Public Instruction, the University ect is not just a class—it’s an published their work in a book of Montana, Montana State Uni- adventure!” said Kelsey Miller, that adds significant detail to versity, the Montana Historical high school senior from Harlow- the history of Montana and of Society, the Montana State Li- ton, Montana. She was one of a their community. Through a brary, the Montana Center for the hundred high school students multimedia presentation, they Book, the Montana Arts Council, gathered at the state capitol in shared the story of their research and the Montana Committee for the Helena to present their gifts of quest with their community at Humanities. It is funded by the scholarship to Montana gover- a special Heritage Evening Liz Claiborne and Arthur Orten- nor Judy Martz. She and her fel- attended by more than a hun- berg Foundation. This article was low seniors in teacher Nancy dred people. adapted from a keynote speech Widdicombe’s English class had These students take their given at the National Rural Educa- made the Bair family ranch in schoolwork seriously in part Fall 2002 3 Student Christian Essenbach, in teacher Rose Goyen’s English classes at Libby High School, takes notes at the historic Kootenai River, as par t of an “essay of place” research and writing project. Many classes study the natural environment as par t of the community.
a secondary- important work that no one ed u cation could do alone. The important project that work we share is that of gather focuses on ing, documenting, preserving, local com and presenting the cultural and munities. In natural heritage of local places. the Montana We will never have enough pro model, the fessional scholars to do this community is work, and if local people don’t both a subject do it, it won’t get done. This real of research ization is easy to communicate and a net to young people, so they know work of re we aren’t being patronizing sources em when we tell them they have real ployed to and important work to do. accomplish At each stage in the process, that research. adult community members are Students are invited to become mentors, co- guided through researchers, and guides, so stu a cycle of dents are engaged in a compre inquiry, sum hensive learning model while marized in the community members are invited ALERT pro to help document and research because adults take it seriously. cess I developed during my their own lives and to tell their Though most schoolwork is graduate research into compre stories in their own ways. thrown away as soon as it is hensive learning models: Some years ago, Education graded, the work of Kelsey and Secretary Richard Riley said that her fellow students will be pre Ask important questions; the nation needed “high educa served at the Montana State His Listen to the historical record as tional standards and effective torical Society archives as a it exists in libraries and archives; strategies for reaching them.” resource for future researchers. Explore beyond the library by Most states have now developed In her excitement about conducting interviews, visiting content and performance stan- community heritage research, sites and events, and creating a dards—lists of things students Kelsey seemed to be reading detailed history of the present; should know and be able to do— from the same page as the proj- Reflect on what has been and debate has come to focus on ect’s founder, Art Ortenberg, learned and how it fits with or how student learning should be who, at the project’s September changes existing knowledge; tested. To the chagrin of most 19, 2002, board meeting, noted Tell the story of what has been people with a passion for teach that “the Montana Heritage Pro found by creating a scholarly ing, tests have become the main ject is a research- and inquiry- product that can be given back to topic of conversation at many driven adventure for students the community.
Fall 2002 5 One of the most vivid signs of and the value of hard work: how place in national and world failed community is a large pop to dress for a job interview and events, its current challenges ulation of troubled youth. As deal with a prospective employ and its future prospects. our schools have become larger er, how to work, and how to keep A few of last year’s projects and more distant from their the job. Through stories, jokes, illustrate the possibilities: communities, to the extent that and conversations, the old head teachers and neighborhood would convey his conception of •Renee Rasmussen’s stu adults inhabit different realities, the “tricks of the trade.” dents in Chester wrote a regular the effectiveness of schools, For those coming of age, local-history column for the especially for troubled youth, which is largely a process of community newspaper. plummets. Study after study has weaving one’s individual story •Phil Leonardi’s freshmen found that over half of second into the larger tapestry of com geography classes partnered ary students make no consistent munity, a neighborhood’s folk with the U.S. Forest Service to effort to learn anything in ways may be more powerful research how the community of school. Student disengagement educative forces than the Corvallis has been affected is epidemic. At bottom, the school’s formal curricula, for through the decades by forest problem is that many young good or ill. This is why serious fires. people do not understand the educators are turning their •In Libby, history teacher Jeff story of their lives as having any attention to community-cen- Gruber’s classes have devel meaningful connection with tered teaching, looking for ways oped a close working relation school. That is, school does not to reconnect their schools with ship with the Heritage Museum, seem real to them. their communities. and students have completed an Sociologist Elijah Anderson extensive set of research projects has argued that we’ve left eachers in the Montana on various topics for the behind a strong sense of commu Heritage Project demon archives, and also developed nity that once brought young strate ways schools can interpretive displays for the and old together, and we now build or rebuild relation museum. suffer from “cultural amnesia” Tships between young people •Jerry Girard’s Montana his (Elijah Anderson, Place on the and their communities simply tory class in Dillon compiled a Corner, Chicago: University of by establishing projects that get history of Beaverhead County’s Chicago Press, 1981). The young the young and old working rural one- and two-room were helped to grow up by wise together. Such teachers remain schools. Students created a map elders (“old heads,” Anderson true to their academic mission showing the location of each calls them) who acted as “a kind by focusing such projects on past and present school in the of guidance counselor and inquiry into the community county, as well as a detailed moral cheerleader.” Children itself: defining events and per timeline of educational events met these old heads in small sons of the past, its relationship in the county from 1863 to the jobs, at church, in school, or sim to the natural environment, its present. This was the basis for a ply on the street corner. The old head might be a police officer, a scoutmaster, or a grocer. The old heads took interest in the com- munity’s young people. For children without available fathers and mothers, the old heads were sources of consola tion, advice, occasional help (including financial), and, above all, sources of moral val ues well laced with doses of real life wisdom. Among the primary messages of the old head, said Anderson, were those about good manners
Amanda Shotzberger interviews Denis Faris, a worker at the Stim son Plywood Mill in Libby. Students in histor y teacher Jeff Gruber’s class documented the process of making plywood for a brochure and Web site. Many schools have com peted studies of the occupational cultures represented in their com munities.
6 Folklife Center News World War II veterans and students in Christa Umphrey’s freshmen English class at Ronan High School on the Flathead Indian Reser vation pose at the public presentation of their oral histor y proj ect to the community, March 27, 2002. Narratives and photos from the project were published in a book, We Remember: 15 Oral Histories of Montana World War Two Veterans. Back, from left: Whitey Starkel, Kenneth Jolley, George Swim, Roy Mueller, James Sivils, Vila Cheff, Gerald Leighton, Thur man Trosper, Clark Marquar t, Greg Hammet, Chris Molenda, Zak Brandon, Brandon Dunkerson, Cur tis Acevedo, Justin Cisney. Middle: Aaron Skogen, Nick Harris, RJ Olsen, Cambrie Starkel, Brid get Taylor, Helena Oruste, Jamie Lake, Cour tney Zimmerer, Jordon Espinosa, Ashely Phillips, Jen nifer Wahl, Chance Remein, Gordon Ahenakew. Front: Tara McCar thy, Elizabeth Krantz permanent exhibit at the Beaver Students drew on their grand which were based on library head County Museum that fea parents and other community research and interviews, in a lit tures video interviews with stu elders as sources of family heir erary magazine. Their high dents and teachers from the past looms and information for inter schools in the center of the Sun and present. pretive labels, and served as River Valley, a rural com •Darlene Beck’s English class docents when elementary stu m u nity without a town as such, in Townsend completed an dents toured the museum. but over two hundred people eighty-five-year history of regularly attend the school’s Broadwater High School. Stu Several Heritage Project Heritage Festival each spring. dents used local newspaper classes are participating in the This showcase for student archives, courthouse records, American Folklife Center ’s research rivals athletics in com school yearbooks dating from Veterans History Project munity popularity. 1916 to the present, and the (www.loc.gov/folklife/vets). In Bigfork, Mary Sullivan’s archives of the Broadwater His The chance to act as partners juniors gathered vivid stories torical Society and Museum for with the Library has been a from World War II, Korean, Viet background research. They con powerful motivator for both nam, and Gulf War veterans. ducted interviews with former students and veterans, and the They borrowed photographs students, teachers, principals, supporting resources provided from the veterans, scanned them, clerks, and board members, and by the Library have embed and combined them with narra produced a slide show for par ded professional standards for tives drawn from oral histories ent conferences and a book that research. in order to create a multimedia was placed in the local museum Christa Umphrey’s freshmen presentation that was shown to a and library. published a book, We Remember, standing-room-only crowd at •In Roundup, art teacher Toni featuring photographs and oral the 435-seat Bigfork Center for Gies led her advanced photogra histories of fifteen World War II the Performing Arts. phy class to create an exhibit fea veterans. New print-on-demand turing historic barns in the area, technology was used to create ince 1995 more than a hun including interviews with peo 150 high-quality paperbacks, dred such projects have ple who knew the histories of the and the book, available through been completed through buildings and how their uses online bookstores such as Ama out Montana. By attempt had changed through time as the zon, should never go out of Sing original research of lasting economic and technological print. value, teachers reverse the ten context of farming on the Great Dottie Susag organized her dency of schools to allow Plains changed. classes at Simms High School tedious routines to fill up the •Also in Roundup, English into research teams with com days. As poet Marvin Bell put it, teacher Tim Schaff and librarian munity mentors and they in many schools “moments of Dale Alger helped English class researched this century’s wars. glory pass into study” (Marvin es create a museum at the school. They published their writings, Bell, The Escape into You: A Fall 2002 7 World War II veteran and member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Thurman Trosper is interviewed by Ronan High School student MacKen zie Tromp, December 12, 2001, as par t of a Flathead Indian Reservation veter ans oral history project conducted in teacher Christa Umphrey’s English classes. Photo by Christa Umphrey
Guests at the Heritage Project student conferences and presen tations often comment on the enthusiasm of the young people. In a good high school, real chal lenges form a good part of the curriculum, and young people meet them with the help of their elders. They build the council fires and think together. When school classes are organized into research teams that work with Sequence, New York: Atheneum, can be a catalyst for community community members and 1971). This is why “academic” is revitalization. Indeed, they’ve organizations to form questions so often used as a synonym for led me to believe that the art and and find answers, community “unreal.” From time to time, craft of being inviting and of ceases to be a buzz word in a every school needs to revitalize forming powerful invitations mission statement and becomes itself, returning to the sources of should be part of all teachers’ a way of life. Young people are learning, which are first-hand pre-service training. By keeping drawn to the adventure. They engagements with life in the the focus of their invitations on wake up and join the conversa raw. “I don’t like busy work any inquiry, they tend to turn prob tion, excited by the power of the more than the students do,” said lems into common work that real. Corvallis teacher Annemarie people can share. They give peo Kanenwisher. “I’d rather do the ple a chance to join. Michael Umphrey is director of the real work, too.” The chance to join—this more Montana Heritage Project. He is In attempting real work, some than anything is what young also the author of two books of poet Montana Heritage Project teach people are looking for. Gangs, ry, The Lit Window (Cleveland ers have become important com drugs, and promiscuity are State University Poetry Center, munity leaders. They’ve done symptoms of a hunger to belong. 1987) and The Breaking Edge this by remaining teachers, These symptoms are unlikely to (University of Montana, 1988), practicing a form of “invitation diminish because we create and a former high school principal. al leadership.” They initiate harder tests with harsher conse He may be contacted at umphrey@ projects that others can join, and quences for failure. edheritage.org. they practice being “personally and professionally inviting,” in William Purkey’s phrase (see William W. Purkey and John M. Novak, Inviting School Success: A Self-Concept Approach to Teach ing, Learning and Democratic Practice, third edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996). They demonstrate that any classroom
Students in Jerry Girard’s Montana His tory class at Beaverhead County High School in Dillon interview Fran Schisler, a teacher at the Polaris School, as par t of their histor y of one- and two-room schools in the county. The interviews took place on Halloween, October 31, 2001, with Ms. Schisler dressed as a train conductor. Melissa Harrison con ducts the interview, Ross Wells oper ates the video camera, and Kevin Ham mond creates a log of the interview.
8 Folklife Center News Oral Tradition and the Library of Congress
By James Hardin
Storytellers were an integral part of the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival, on October 12, holding forth in a pavilion very near several oth ers where authors were cele brating history and literature. The stories they told were enter taining, engaging, and instruc tive, and audiences responded with appreciative applause and laughter. But there was also an underlying appropriateness to this inclusion in a festival of the book. The importance of oral tradition is acknowledged in the symbolism at the very entrance to the Library of Con gress. The three deep arches that form the main entrance to the Thomas Jefferson Building frame three massive bronze doors, fourteen feet high, seven and a half feet wide, and weigh ing a total of three and a half tons. The three doors are richly decorated in sculptural relief to represent tradition, writing, and printing (with printing in the center), “the successive and more gradually perfect ways in which mankind has preserved its religion, history, literature, and science” (Herbert Small, Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington, Boston: Curtis & Cameron, 1901, p. 18). In the typanum above the first door, which was designed by Olin L. Warner, a female fig ure, instructing a young boy in the ways and deeds of his eld ers, embodies the theme of oral tradition. Seated on the ground, two on either side, and listening intently to her words, are an American Indian, a Norseman, a
The Nor th Door of the Library of Con- gress’s Thomas Jefferson Building. Library of Congress photo, July 1961
Fall 2002 9 his surrender speech: “I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. . . . I want to look for my chil dren, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever” (from www.the- oldwestwebride.com). Chief Joseph ended his days at the Colville Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. He visited Washington, D.C., sever al times, and on one occasion met with President Theodore Roo sevelt. On one of his trips to Washington, he was recorded by Alice Cunningham Fletcher, probably at her home on First Street, S.E., where the Library’s Madison Building now stands. The cylinder recordings, on which he performed several war and war dance songs, are in the collections of the American Folk- life Center. They are among some ten thousand wax-cylinder recordings, as well as many oth ers, of Native American song and spoken word, from the 1890s to the present day, one of the pre eminent collections in the Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. Photo by Edward S. Cur tis. Prints and Archive of Folk Culture. Photographs Division prehistoric man, and a shep the army. He led herd. Herbert Small’s Hand his small band of book reports that “the face of the followers on a Indian is understood to be a por thousand-mile trait of Chief Joseph, of the Nez journey to Cana Percés tribe, from a sketch made da, making it to from life by Mr. Warner in 1889.” within thirty miles of the bor hief Joseph (1840–1904) der before he was was one of the most surrounded and famous Native Ameri captured. Along cans of his day. In 1877 the way, his hu Cthe U.S. government attempted mane behavior to force the Nez Perce people to and fighting tac move from their traditional tics won him the homeland in northeastern Ore praise and respect gon to a reservation in Idaho. of U.S. Army gen Joseph, who took the name that erals and others, had been bestowed upon his and he became father by a missionary, at first known as the agreed peacefully but then “Red Napoleon.” determined to resist when the He is further orderly process was disrupted remembered for by clashes with the settlers and the eloquence of At the National Book Festival, Chuna McIntyre, from Olympia, Washington, tells stories and describes the traditional ways of the Yup’ik Eskimo people of Southwestern Alaska.
10 Folklife Center News Book Festival Features Storytelling
Photos by James Hardin
American Folklife Center archivist Nora Yeh (left) chats with members of the Cambodian American Heritage dance troupe from For t Washington, Maryland. The dancers must prepare for a per formance many hours in advance and are actually sewn into their elaborate and beautiful costumes. The traditional dances they performed told sto ries of love, blessing, and the origins of thunder and lightning. The American Folklife Center’s Story telling Pavilion was par t of the Librar y of Congress’s second annual National Book Festival, held on the west-front grounds of the U.S. Capitol on October 12, 2002. This year the festival attracted more than for ty thousand enthusiastic book-lovers.
Russian immi Antonio Sacre, grant and “Jew Cuban-Irish sto ish grandmother” ryteller from Bos Roslyn Bresnick- ton, now living in Perry, from New Los Angeles, tells York City, tells stories of growing bittersweet real- up Latino in a life stories of white world and immigr ation, white in a Latino acculturation, world. One of his acceptance, suc stories concerns cess and failure, a mouse that is love, sex, and able to protect her growing old. children from a cat by barking, because the cat fears the barking will attract real dogs. The lesson of the story: “You see, it pays to speak another language.”
Fall 2002 11 Tom Weakley, from Arlington, Vermont, captivated the audience with stories of how a typical Ve r monter gives direc tions; betra y al and retribution in a Ver mont valley town; and a Confederate raid on the Vermont city of St. Albans during the Civil War. Frankie Quimby and her son-in-law Thomas Mer rell, of the Georgia Sea Island Singers, from B r u n s wick, Georgia. The group sang, danced, and told t raditional Gullah stories for an audi ence that included first ladies Laura Bush and Ludmila Putin of Russia.
Deaf performance artist Peter Cook, Nevada cowboy poet and musician Waddie Mitchell, who from Chicago, Illinois, presents a combi got his star t as a storyteller at the first Elko [Nevada] nation of sign and acting he calls “visual Cowboy Poetry Gathering, recites an old favorite called poetry” that is a “group experience.” “Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail.” 12 Folklife Center News A Brief History of Chinese Puppetry
The New Acadia Puppet Troupe, Taiwanese hand-puppet theater based in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, at the Stor y- telling Pavilion of the Library of Congress’s 2001 National Book Festival. Photo by James Hardin
By Nora Yeh victims once used at exorcisms the thousands of terra cotta sol performed by shamen during diers found in the underground Puppets and puppetry have purification rituals held to palatial tomb of the Qinshi existed in China for more than ensure that the dead would Huangdi (221 to 210 B.C.), two thousand years. Written enjoy a good life in the “next known to the West as the “First records in China prior to the world.” The figures were very Emperor.” sixth century are vague, and likely the prototypes of Chinese The earliest extant Chinese therefore the exact beginnings puppets. puppet—a six-foot wooden fig of Chinese puppetry are uncer During the Shang dynasty, ure with moveable knees, shoul tain. But the close relationship from the sixteenth to the tenth ders, and waist, which allowed between puppet figures and century B.C., Chinese buried the figure to sit, kneel, or religious practices suggest one their dead with their personal stand—was found in a tomb possible origin. and household possessions. dated to 107 B.C. There is a story Of the many funereal figures Slaves or captives of war were about a famous craftsman who excavated from ancient tomb also buried with their masters to lived three thousand years ago, sites, some have puppet-like serve them in death. Later on, whose puppet was condemned moveable parts. Such figures, these human sacrifices were to death because it danced and made with metal, clay, or wood, replaced by effigies, or yong, of winked like a real human being. were fitted with mechanisms the servants and attendants. Beautiful female puppets and fashioned in the form of Some yong had moving parts, at were supposed to have been servants, instrumentalists, least by the time of Confucius, mentioned as one of the thirty- dancers, guards, and animals. around the fifth century B.C. six strategies in Sun Wu’s book They replaced human sacrificial Today, the most famous yong are Art of War in the Zhou dynasty,
Fall 2002 13 Chinese puppetry in the United States today is exemplified by the Dragon Ar ts Studio of Por tland, Oregon, consisting of Yuqin Wang, Zhengli “Rocky” Xu, and their daughter Ke “Brenda” Xu, shown here. They performed rod puppetry on the Library’s Neptune Plaza on May 15, 2002, present ing a wonderful assor tment of programs: Tor toise and the Crane; Old Man and the Monkeys; The Pet Donkey (shown here); The Dancer, and Ping-Pong Galactic. Photo by James Hardin
famous royal Pear Garden The ater. He was also the theater’s chief string puppeteer. Later he became known as “Marshal Tian,” and a puppet made in his likeness became the theater’s principal puppet. Puppetry and other theatrical arts flourished in the next dynasty, the Song period, from the tenth to the thirteenth centu ry, because urban centers with a growing middle class could afford entertainment through out the year. Puppetry in one form or another was often per formed at temples, in market places, at the households of wealthy merchants, and in the imperial courts. From its funere before the second century B.C. many types of One legend tells that the leaders puppets. Emper of the besieged city, Pinchen, or Tang Xuan ordered a puppet made to look zong, in the like an exquisite woman. It was eighth century, then displayed on the city wall. promoted the The invading general was so performing arts: captivated by the figure that his singing, music, wife, who accompanied him, dance, drama, became jealous and persuaded and theater, him to lift the siege and return which included home. Chinese puppet theater puppetry. Dur probably originated from these ing this period, a various uses and contexts. talented young man by the name t is not clear which was the of Tian, from earliest form of puppetry in Quanzhou of the China. The first documenta Fujian province, tion of puppetry, from the was made leader Isixth century A.D., described of actors in the Yuqin Wang with one of the heavenly dancers from Bud dhist tradition, similar to those represented in sculpture and painting in the famous Dunhuang Caves, on the Silk Road in China. Yuqin Wang, who was brought up in a the atrical family, entered Chinese opera school at the age of ten and performed Peking opera until the age of eighteen, when she was recruited for training in the Puppet Ar t Troupe of China. Yuqin found that she was able to transfer and apply the techniques she had learned at the Peking Opera Company to rod puppetr y. Photo by James Hardin
14 Folklife Center News legend dated 121 B.C., during the reign of the Emperor Han Wudi (140 to 101 B.C.). The emperor missed his consort, Lady Li, when she died and, to help him find consolation, a puppeteer displayed her image behind a lit curtain. The first docu mentation of shadow puppets is a descrip tion, from the Tang dynasty (618–907 A.D.), that details how Bud dhist monks used shadow figures to teach Buddhism. By the time of Mon golian rule, Chinese shadow plays were brought with armies to Turkey, Arabia, and Egypt, and then later on to France, England, A lion shadow puppet from the Hwa Chou Yuan Shadow Puppet Theater Troupe of Taiwan. Germany, and the rest Photo by Jiang Wu-Tsang of Europe. In China the shadow plays were al and ritual origins, puppetry twigs or bamboo in the past and popular for nine hundred years, developed to become popular wire and metal rods nowadays, but by the end of the nineteenth among both commoners and used to be concealed inside the century internal strife and for royalty, especially at festivities. puppet. Today they are often eign aggression led to their near As puppets came to be used in controlled from the outside, extinction. Characterized by its secular entertainments, they allowing the puppeteers to sim two- rather than three-dimen- were often categorized by four ulate more expansive move sional puppets, beginning in the theatrical roles, similar to that of ments. 1930s, shadow theater became all Chinese theaters: sheng or China’s rod puppet theaters an educational and political males, dan or females, bei or have been divided into three tool as well as an entertainment. painted face, and za or miscella types, according to the size of All forms of puppetry were neous character types, such as the puppets used. The smallest encouraged by the government clowns. are eleven to eighteen inches, after the Communist take-over and a puppeteer can hold one in in 1949. Like all other traditional urrently, four types of each hand for the performance. arts, however, puppetry faced puppets are popular in Medium-sized puppets measure yet another near extinction dur China. Rod puppets can about thirty-six inches, and a ing the Cultural Revolution be found in almost all puppeteer can manipulate only (1966–76). Cregions; shadow puppets most one puppet at a time. In some A master shadow puppeteer ly in northern and inland areas; theaters, a single puppeteer in can control up to four figures in string puppets in the southeast costume performs on stage with each hand by holding the rods ern region; and hand puppets in one rod puppet. Life-size rod that control the shadow pup the coastal provinces of Fujian figures are held by a central rod pets. Extra rods are often used and Taiwan. strapped around the per- temporarily. In some complicat former’s waist. The performer ed fight scenes, it may be neces (1) Rod puppets, or zhang-tou manipulates the two hands of sary to have two players hold a mu-ou, literally “rod-head pup the puppet with his own two single figure. Shadow figures pets,” appear most often in the hands. can be shown to drink wine, countryside. Led by state-spon- (2) Shadow puppets are called smoke a pipe, juggle, mount and sored troupes in Beijing and pi-ying xi or “leather-shadow dismount a horse, use a bow and Shanghai, rod-puppet theater is theater.” Shadow-puppet the arrow, and suddenly appear and being modernized by lighting, ater is the most versatile in disappear. Wind, mist, clouds, special effects, and Western employing scenery, action, and and water and waves can be rep plays and music, in order to sat sound effects. Originating resented by smoke. In complex isfy contemporary audiences. either in India or China, Chinese plays, figures of different sizes Control mechanisms, made of shadow puppetry figures in a are used to create the illusion of Fall 2002 15 depth, so that, for example, five varied from period to period. include “The Monkey King” characters may be represented The master was seated with an from The Journey to the West, The by more than two hundred fig assistant, and each frequently Legend of the White Snake, and The ures, in various shapes, outfits, manipulated two puppets Eight Immortals Cross the Ocean. sizes, and transformations. simultaneously. While the mas Classics of puppetry also (3) String puppets, ti-xian kui-lei ter performed the major roles, include “Lei Wanchun Fights the or marionettes, are probably sang and spoke, the assistant Tiger,” “The Tortoise and the among the oldest of the puppet performed only minor roles and Crane,” The Story of Three King figures in China. In the South did not sing or speak. While doms, and many others. The pro east it has been the custom to other puppet actions are con grams for children often provide stage string-puppet theater pre trolled indirectly, through rods instruction and entertainment, sentations to drive away evil or strings, hand puppets require and employ animals, acrobatics, forces at events such as wed direct contact with the pup and musical accompaniment. dings, birthdays, and the open peteer. Certain actions, such as Today, both government-sup- ings of new buildings, as well as the spinning of plates, fighting ported professionals and pri after fires, disasters, or funer with weapons, and performing vately organized troupes can be als. found performing in Originally, at least cities and rural areas five strings were used throughout China. to control each figure. National-level troupes Today, the average are obligated to per number of fifteen-foot form for two months, strings is sixteen, municipal troupes although sometimes have to perform for there are as many as four months in villages, thirty-two. They are and amateur or private manipulated by two troupes can go any or three puppeteers, where they find finan which allows for more cial support. complicated actions. The China Art Pup The artistic quality of pet Troupe in Beijing, performance is often the national troupe of judged on the basis of China, with more than the simulated walk, 100 puppeteers and which is used to con musicians, was estab vey character and per lished in 1953. The sonality. For example, troupe spends about a female character half the year perform “floats” with a gentle ing throughout China sway, while an official in theaters, schools, moves slowly and and children’s centers. with dignity. Similarly, the Shanghai For special effects, Puppet Troupe, which puppets may have had more than 150 staff movable earlobes, Nora Yeh holds a hand-held puppet representing the “Good members and about 50 hinged jaws, enlarged Mother” character in the play “Grandaunt Tiger.” The charac students as of 1982, heads, and eyes that ter was created by Alan Chen for the New Acadia Puppet performs more than can be opened and Troupe, which employs delicate, life-like, beautifully cos- five hundred shows a closed. Such elaborate tumed figurines. Photo by James Hardin year in kindergartens, marionettes come schools, and theaters from professional or a few pri somersaults, are among the spe in Shanghai and elsewhere in vate troupes, mostly in the cialties of the Fujian hand pup the country. Fujian province, although peteers. Demonstration of such These national and provin- small-scale troupes with sim technical expertise while on cial-level troupes provide train pler figures are active in other international tours brought ing to young people and the parts of China. them worldwide recognition. opportunities for experimenta (4) Hand puppets, bu-dai xi, lit tion, such as using new tech erally “cloth-bag theater,” are n all forms of Chinese pup niques and mixing two or more associated mostly with southern pet theater, traditional sto types and styles of puppetry. Fujian province, where they ries from mythology, histo They also set the standards for supposedly appeared in the six ry, and literature are all puppet theaters, both in their teenth century. The early stage Iperformed, as well as many domestic performances and in had two levels, with windows pieces produced just for chil their travel abroad to perform at on the upper and doors on the dren. The most representative international events and as part lower level. Sizes of the puppets stories from mythologies of cultural exchange programs. 16 Folklife Center News Mary Hufford Accepts New Academic Position
After nearly twenty Center’s online presen years as a folklife spe tation “Tending the cialist at the American Commons: Folklife and Folklife Center, Mary Landscape in Southern Hufford has accepted a West Virginia.” Her new position on the books include Conserv graduate faculty at the ing Culture: A New Dis- University of Pennsyl course on Heritage (edi vania, where she has tor), Urbana: University served for a year, while of Illinois Press, 1994; on a leave of absence Chaseworld: Foxhunting from the Library of and Storytelling in New Congress. She is plan- Jersey’s Pine Barrens, ning and developing Philadelphia: Univer the university’s new sity of Pennsylvania Center for Folklore and Press, 1992; and One Ethnography. Space, Many Places: Folk- During Mary’s ten- life and Land Use in New ure at the American Jersey’s Pinelands Na- Folklife Center, she tional Reserve, Washing- specialized in issues of ton, D.C.: Library of folk culture and land Congress, 1986. use, beginning with Mary has had a distin work on the Pinelands guished career both at Folklife Project (1983) Mary Hufford interviews bluegrass musician Everett Lilly the American Folklife and culminating with during a 1996 Fourth of July celebration on Kayford Moun- Center and in the pro- her work on the Coal tain, in West Virginia, as part of the American Folklife fession of folklore. She River [West Virginia] Center’s Coal River Folklife Project. Photo by Terry Eiler has ably balanced the Folklife Project. In 1990 interests and demands she coordinated the highly suc- written articles for scholarly of academic and public sector cessful conference “Cultural journals and the popular press, folklore, and is widely recog- Conservation: Reconfiguring as well as for Folklife Center nized for both her scholarly the Cultural Mission.” She has News, and was curator for the publications and her fieldwork.
Tracy Rush, Don Steck, Bob Cage, and Larry Walker in the Folklife Reading Room, October 4, 2002. Rush, Steck, and Walker are musi cians and songwriters who have produced a new CD for their “BACCAWRAP” project, which they donated to the Center. The CD includes music about the decline of small farms and the folkways that are part of farm life, in particular the dying tradition of tobacco auctions. Their music incorporates the auc tion chants of world champion tobacco auctioneer Bob Cage, whose work had been previously documented for inclusion in the Archive of Folk Culture.
Fall 2002 17 People and Events
“Old New England,” with 2002 National Heritage Fellow Bob McQuillen, contradance caller Mary DesRosiers, and musicians Deanna Stiles and Jane Orzechowski, performed on the Neptune Plaza of the Thomas Jefferson Building, October 8, 2002.The New Hampshire contradance group had the audience on their feet, literally, for an hour of danc ing and clapping, as DesRosier coaxed willing and reluctant alike from the building steps and put them through their paces. Contradancing, a two-hundred-fifty-year-old New England tradition, is a lineal dance form characterized by opposing lines of dancers performing elaborate figures based on English country dances. Photo by James Hardin
Folklife Specialist Ann Hoog and American Folklife Center intern Ines Klinger review some of the materials from the September 11, 2001, Collection. Approxi mately six hundred taped interviews and more that two hundred photographs of spontaneous memorials from twenty-two states were sent to the Library in response to the Center’s request for audio-taped interviews doc umenting the immediate reactions of people around the country to the tragic events of September 11 (see Folk- life Center News, fall 2001). Photo by James Hardin
18 Folklife Center News AFC Board of Trustees Meets in Omaha
VA Medical Cen ter (to discuss the Veterans History Project with local tribal leaders). The warmth of the welcome extend ed by our Nebras ka hosts was deeply felt and much appreciated by all who attend ed the meeting. In this photo graph at the Ger ald R. Ford Con servation Center, director Julie Reilly (center left) and Objects Conser vation Laborato ry head Deborah Long (center right) describe The American Folklife Center the Nebraska State Historical the work of the laboratory. Pic Board of Trustees held its fall Society, the Nebraska Commis tured here are board member meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, sion on Indian Affairs, the Red Norma Cantú (left); Ellen September 26–27, 2002. The Willow Institute, and the John G. Lovell, director of the Veterans meeting was coordinated by Neihardt Foundation. The very History Project; Bill Brough, Charles Trimble, president of full schedule of meetings and representing the Department of the Red Willow Institute of other activities included a Veterans Affairs at the meeting; Omaha, Nebraska, and former reception at Joslyn Castle, host and board member Fran Mainel member of the American Folk- ed by the Nebraska Arts Coun la (right). The serpentine fume- life Center’s board. The hosts for cil; a tour of the Gerald R. Ford extraction ducts provide outlets the meeting included the Conservation Center; and visits for vapors from the solvent used Nebraska Arts Council, the to the El Museo Latino facility, in the conservation process. Nebraska Humanities Council, the Joslyn Art Museum, and the Photo by James Hardin
EDITOR’S NOTES from page 2 Pavilion, enjoying the songs and Accolades to project director stories of Doug and Frankie Mike Umphrey and his adminis November. The Library’s Na Quimby and the Georgia Sea trative assistant Katherine tional Book Festival, held on the Island Singers, who cleverly Mitchell for their fine work U.S. Capitol grounds October worked Mrs. Bush’s name into building and managing this 12, attracted an estimated forty the lyrics of several songs (see great project, and to its thousand people, despite the page 11). founders, funders, and guiding threat of rain and a widely pub spirits Art Ortenberg and Liz licized series of sniper attacks in Montana Heritage Project Claiborne. As Mike notes in his the greater Washington area. Hard to believe its been near article for this issue, many of the Security was especially tight ly eight years since the start of chronic problems facing schools because festival host Laura the Montana Heritage Project today might be alleviated by a Bush paid a visit to the site, (see “Montana Heritage Educa stronger sense of community bringing with her Ludmila tion Project Brings Schools Back involvement and identification Putin, of Russia. The two first into Community,” by Michael and a better working relation ladies spent much of their time Umphrey, Folklife Center News, ship between adults and young at the Center’s Storytelling summer–fall 1997, page 3). people. Fall 2002 19 Contradancing on the Neptune Plaza, with “Old New England,” October 8, 2002. See page 18. Photo by James Hardin
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