The meaning of custom, or folklore, refers to the summation of conduct, etiquette, habits, and other practices that have been established over the long term in the social life of the people in a particular group or region. The content of folklore is vast and diverse, encompassing material production, material life, social organizations, seasonal festivals, life rituals, marriage and childbirth, folk beliefs, folk science and technology, folk storytelling, folk language, folk art, folk games, recreational activities, and so on.
Historically, secular life was once beneath the attention of scholars, as the elegant life advocated by them was seen as opposed to secular life. The interest in folklore in Chinese academia dates to the Folksong Collecting Movement in 1918. This movement, initiated by Peking University, garnered widespread support and subsequently sparked a trend of “going to the people” within academia. Many pioneers of the New Culture Movement (Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren, Lu Xun, etc.) were engaged in this movement to some degree, making studying folklore as a means for intellectuals to connect to the common people and “reform” Chinese culture in the context of a crisis of Chinese nationhood.
In 1985, after receiving his PhD (History and East Asian Languages) from Harvard University, Hung Chang-tai, a historian specializing in modern Chinese cultural history, published the book Going to the People: Chinese Intellectuals and Folk Literature, 1918-1937, which exhibits a shift of scholars’ passion from elegant life to secular life, as well as a trajectory of the integration of refined and popular cultures. In fact, secular life encompasses both the vulgar and elegant elements, the integration of which reflects the true essence of secular life.
Through nearly a hundred Chinese traditional genre paintings, this book tells folklore stories related to different stages throughout one’s lifetime, including childbirth, child-raising, love, marriage, family, wealth seeking, birthday celebrations, and other aspects. In ancient times, although large numbers of New Year paintings could only be seen in rural markets and town streets at the end of the lunar calendar year, different themed New Year pictures could still be found during festive occasions as well as customs for weddings and funerals throughout the year.
These folk New Year pictures often feature themes beloved by people, some of which are both ceremonial paintings and genre paintings. The Taohuawu New Year picture themed on the “Immortals of Harmony and Union” is a good example. In this picture, two boys, dressed in embroidered clothes, barefoot or wearing straw sandals, one holding a colorful box and the other holding a lotus flower, are depicted as gods of happiness and wealth. During the wedding ceremony of newlyweds, this picture should be hung as a traditional custom, which can be traced back to the commentary on Rites of Zhou, “With the help of Immortals of Harmony and Union, a man of thirty and a woman of twenty would be a good marriage match.” Similar records can also be found in Jiaoshi Yilin (Mr. Jiao’s Many Thoughts on the Book of Changes).
Each Chinese traditional genre painting has its unique origin and story. The fame of “Immortals of Harmony and Union” has undergone a development process. According to Xihu Youlan Zhi (a local gazetteer on the West Lake), in the early ages, this title refers to a person named Wan Hui, but in Idiomatic Dialogues complied by a Qing Dynasty scholar, it refers to two great monks. “In the eleventh year of the Yongzheng Emperor’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1733), the great monk of Mount Tiantai, Hanshan, was sealed as the Saint of Harmony, and the great monk Shide was sealed as the Saint of Union.” Hence, they were known as the “Saints of Harmony and Union”, or “Immortals of Harmony and Union”.
Genre paintings reflect conduct, etiquette, and other folk practices closely related to people’s daily lives, gradually becoming prevalent and passed along over time through social convention. They are the visual carriers for people to freely express their emotions and showcase their unique spiritual outlook and worldview. In an era without newspapers, television, or online media, folk New Year pictures were the most widely disseminated and circulated media to bring spiritual comfort and longings for a better life to common people.
Shen Hong
Winter 2021
Qin Li, the professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Translation Studies, Xi’an International Studies University. She has been a visiting scholar at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, a book reviewer for Taylor & Francis, and is selected for the 7th batch of the “Hundred Talents Program” for young scholars in Shaanxi Province. She is also recognized as a talent under the “Six Batches” initiative of the Shaanxi Provincial Propaganda and Ideological Cultural System. Her research interests include translation theory and practice, translation history, and comparative literature translation studies. She has published four monographs, including Research on the Chinese Translation of Foreign Popular Literature in the New Century, The Interplay between Chinese Translated Literature and Native Literature, and A Study on the Translation History of Chinese Science Fiction Literature in the Past Century and so on. Li Qin has published seven academic translations, including works such as Mythology and Philosophy from Pre-Socratic to Plato and Mythology Library Babylon and Assyrian Mythology, both part of the “Mythology Library” under the “13th Five-Year Plan” National Key Books Publishing Plan and National Publishing Fund Project, as well as Annual Report on Culture of Shaanxi (2018)in the Shaanxi Blue Book series, and The Development Trajectory of Eastern Societies and the Theories and Practices of Socialism in the “China National Governance Series” under the China Book International Promotion Plan and the Commercial Press–Routledge Foreign Translation Project. Qin Li has led three National Social Science Fund projects, several Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences research projects, and provincial and ministerial projects supported by the Shaanxi Provincial Social Science Fund. She has collaborated on three horizontal projects with the Commercial Press and China Social Sciences Press. Many of her research achievements have received awards from the Shaanxi Provincial Government.
Qiao-Ke Sun, MA in Linguistics of University College London (UCL), UK; PhD in Translation Studies at Xi’an International Studies University (XISU), China; certified cultural and educational expert by the Foreign Talent Research Center of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China, official member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), professional member of the Translators Association of China (TAC), academic member of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), and holder of the CATTI Level 2 Translation Certificate. Currently, she works as the lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages, Wenzhou University of Technology. Her research interest is the translation and dissemination of Chinese culture. She has participated in multiple projects including the National Social Science Fund of China, the Chinese Academic Translation Project, the Chinese Books Promotion Plan, and the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Translation of National Key Books Publishing Project. She has published the monograph: Study on Translation Theory and Practice Between English and Chinese and the academic translated works: The Contemporary Rural Literature of Shaanxi: A Modernity View and Study on Strategies of College Students’ Entrepreneurial Skill Development. Her main translation project partners include the United Nations, Tencent, Baidu Wenxue, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhejiang University, Omniscient Pte. Ltd., Russian Academy of Sciences Science Publishing Group etc.
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