What is the folk story of Jiaxing?

A few anthologies are far from enough.

Yuneng

Folk stories are full of local flavor and are deeply loved by ordinary people. As a part of the intangible cultural heritage of our city, how to protect and inherit these cultures with local characteristics is also the responsibility of people living in this land. This time, our department went deep into the fields to interview the elderly who told folk stories, which also caused some feelings.

With the great enrichment of people's spiritual life, as an ancient traditional storytelling method, it gradually declined. Because of the loss of audience, most people who had great enthusiasm for telling and sorting out folk stories stopped telling stories. For example, Wang Jinxian of Muqiao Community, the manager of Wang Store, gradually gave up this person's hobbies because he got married and worked in a township enterprise. This is a common phenomenon at present, so in this state, how to provide conditions for the survival of folk culture, including folk stories?

In the 1980s, the government organized a large-scale collection of folk literature, and people engaged in urban and rural cultural work actively participated in the general survey collection, such as Mr. Yuan Kelu, whom I know, and Jin Tianlin of Jiashan Cultural Center and Mei of Wangdian Cultural Station whom I met in this interview. But more than 20 years have passed. Today, there are still many intangible cultural heritages that need to be rescued urgently, and I see that most of the original ecological folk stories collected in the 1980s are still lying neatly and quietly in the folder of the cultural station. I think, to take a step back, it is also an urgent task for us not to seek the glory of the past, but to publish these folk stories, which cost a lot of people's efforts, and to transform intangible cultural heritage into material forms-books, CDs and VCDs (including recordings) for research, circulation and preservation (the existing anthologies are far from enough).

On the other hand, the rich and colorful folk oral history and literary stories are mostly inherited by the elderly. For example, Wang Laoren, who lives in No.6 Jiannan Village, Wangdian, told us four stories of different lengths in one breath, but the younger generation no longer regards telling stories as fun. In this respect, how to cultivate the inheritors of folk literature is also a point worth thinking about, because for folk stories, if skins don't exist, how can hairs attach?

Transplanting folk stories

Li Meier

I have had contact with Jiaxing's folk culture. It's the first time to listen to so many folk stories in one breath.

Supposedly, the folk stories circulated in the village are all original. But the people who tell me stories are not farmers. It is said that there are fewer and fewer old farmers who can tell stories now.

Xu Chunlei, Chen Zhinong and Zhu Ruimin are also folk artists in Tongxiang. I have deep feelings for folk stories and have been listening to them for decades.

I asked them, what made them do this? They said I loved listening to stories when I was a child. At that time, the old people in the village often told stories. When I grow up, I find that fewer and fewer people tell stories. In 1980s, there was a national cultural activity to collect folk culture. Several of them took part in the activity. Later, the folk writers and artists association was established. At that time, their collection and sorting work was basically mandatory. In order to save those dying folk stories, they searched village by village for old people who could tell stories. In recent years, they have also begun to create new folk stories.

Some old people have passed away, and some have bad memories. The story is transplanted from the heart of the old people in the four townships to the heart, and from the mouth to the paper. The immortality of this big tree of folk stories is related to the careful cultivation of folk artists. However, they feel that there is no successor, young people are not interested in it, and folk art is seriously lacking in new strength. How will the transplanted folk stories be reborn, or will there be only one specimen left for display?

Stories are for listening.

AnnaSue

Cultural monuments and historical relics have always been seen from a distance but can't be used for fun, but folk stories have grown up.

When we were sitting on a stone bridge and under a big tree, we listened to an old man telling the story of the bridge and the river. When we listen to an old woman telling a story that happened in this land through the railing, and when we listen to an octogenarian telling a story that his grandparents told when he was seven or eight years old, we feel that this story is so close to us and within our reach.

This story is worth listening to. But these stories, with the tide of time, with the gradual departure of the elderly, are gradually drifting away in our lives. How many people still know these stories, how many people will tell them and how many people will listen to them. Your children, your descendants, grew up with Cherry Maruko and Doraemon, fell asleep with Princess and Prince, and lived happily ever after.

In fact, our short listening days, which are in a hurry and full of regrets, may not play any role. Fortunately, some counties and cities have done a good job in collecting and sorting out folk stories. What we can hope is that with our pens and our hearts, we can let everyone know that there are many stories in the mouths of grandparents, on this ancient bridge, in the gurgling river, in the fragrance of the soil and on the stone where you sit.

Please spare some time and patience to listen to those stories told by your grandparents. "And then what? Then what? " Keep asking. Maybe when you were young, they had been nagging many times. Please also take a moment to tell this story to your children and your descendants in the happy life of the prince and princess. After all, these stories all happened in this land under your feet. After all, stories are meant to be heard and passed down from generation to generation.

Word of mouth is passed down from generation to generation.

Zhu Zheng

After listening to so many people telling the folk stories circulating in Jiaxing, we deeply feel that folk stories are passed down from generation to generation.

When we arrived at the local cultural center, we found that their staff had done a lot of collecting folk stories nearly twenty years ago and edited them into books. Most of them grew up listening to folk stories told by their elders.

Zheng of Tongxiang is over 60 years old. His family lives in Tongfu and has a thick stack of folk stories he wrote. He said that although he had taught, he was still a real old farmer. He grew up listening to his mother telling folk stories and happily stepping on the soil in the field. When he was a teacher, he always set aside a few minutes in class, called "story-telling time", to tell students some interesting stories that his mother told him in his memory.

Yan Jianming of Tongxiang Cultural Center was also his student. He said that what students look forward to most when they go to school every day is this "story-telling time". At this time, everyone sat up straight, held their breath and stared at the boss. Now, more than 20 years have passed, and Yan Jianming's sons are all in junior high school. Now he not only tells stories to his sons, but also collects and records rural folk stories. His stories are often published in public publications, so that Tongxiang people's intelligence, diligence and wisdom can be inherited and carried forward by future generations. He said, this may be the meaning of spreading folk stories!