The Narrative Arts of Tianjin: Between Music and Language / Edition 1

by Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson

Overview

In studying one of the world's oldest and most enduring musical cultures, academics have consistently missed one of the richest forms of Chinese cultural expression: performed narratives. Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson explores the relationships between language and music in the performance of four narrative genres in the city of Tianjin, China, based upon original field research conducted in the People's Republic of China in the mid 1980s and in 1991. The author emphasizes the unique nature of oral performances in China: these genres are both musical and literary and yet are considered to be neither music nor literature. Lawson employs extensive examples of the complex interaction of music and language in each genre, all the while relating those analyses to broader cultural issues and to patterns of social relationships. The narrative arts known as shuochang (speaking-singing) are depicted as genres that constitute a unique communicative discourse”the communication of stories in song. The genres subsumed under the native conception of shuochang include Tianjin Popular Tunes, Beijing Drumsong, Clappertales and Comic Routines. The maximum utilization of shuo (speaking) and chang (singing) in all their varying manifestations constitutes the vitality of the traditional narrative arts in the city of Tianjin”the center for these arts in North China. The variety of narrative forms provides entertainment for audiences representing all social strata of Chinese society. The author argues that Chinese narrative traditions represent a foundation from which certain Chinese literary and operatic traditions have borrowed, such as how the novels from the Ming-Qing period draw on the performed narrative arts both in style and in content. Hence, an understanding of performed narratives is not only useful to scholars in Chinese literature and music, but also to scholars interested in broadening their understanding of China generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409405887
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/28/2011
Series:	SOAS Studies in Music
Edition description:	1
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson received an undergraduate degree in harp performance from BYU, an MA degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. She conducted research on the inter-relationships of language and music in the narrative arts of Tianjin, China as a Fulbright-Hays and National Academy of Sciences Research Fellow. She also worked as a President's Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and taught interdisciplinary courses in the Asian humanities and in gender-music relationships at Columbia University in New York City. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature at Brigham Young University, USA.

Table of Contents

Contents: Part I Background: Introduction; Prologue; Teahouses and marketplaces: narrative arts before 1949; The iron rice bowl: Shuochàng becomes Quyì after 1949; Social relationships; Language-music relationships. Part II Performances: Act 1: Tianjin popular tunes (Tianjin Shidiao) Chang over Shuo; Act 2: Beijing drumsong (Jingyun Dagu) Chang vis-a-vis Shuo; Act 3: fast clappertales (Kuaibarshu) Shuo vis-a-vis Chang; Act 4: comic routines (Xiangsheng) Shuo over Chang; Conclusions. Part III Appendices. Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Paying close attention to social relationships, [Lawson's] exposition goes beyond static analysis of the structure of shuochang into the lively presentation of many significant elements such as social hierarchies, relationships of equality, and gender.' Journal of Folklore Research 'The accompanying CD that collects four sound clips of shuochang performances adds value to this book, supplementing the text to help readers understand the complex interplay between music and language in traditional narrative arts. In sum, this book presents a valuable introduction to the performance of Tianjin’s shuochang arts, which embody the linguistically and musically rich narrative traditions of China.' The China Journal

From the Publisher