China News Service, Beijing, May 6th Title: Junko Ikeguchi: How does the "living culture" of Chinese folk rap reach the heart?
China News Service reporter Gao Kai
In the interaction between China and the outside world, not only the comprehensive development of the economy and society has aroused widespread interest, but the rich and diverse Chinese traditional culture has also attracted more and more attention. Junko Ikeguchi, a Japanese ethnologist and professor at Osaka Music University, is a foreign scholar who has long paid attention to and studied Chinese folk rap art.
Junko Ikeguchi has conducted field surveys in China for a long time, conducting artistic research on Chinese folk rap from the perspective of ethnomusicology, and observing traditional Chinese culture from the perspective of "other". She regards Chinese folk rap art as a "verbal tradition" in rural areas, believing it is a "living culture" with great value.
Junko Ikeguchi recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East and West Questions", sharing her discoveries in this special research field, looking back at the "meetings" and "touchings" in in-depth field surveys in China, and telling her thoughts on the exchange of folk culture between China and Japan.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service Reporter: What kind of opportunity has you become interested in the relatively "narrow" field of Chinese folk rap art and determined to study it? What did you find out from this?
Junko Ikeguchi: When I was a graduate student in ethnological music at Osaka University in 1987, I learned that there are more than 300 kinds of folk music in China, while there are only a few classical rap art in Japan. How did so many kinds of musical species in China develop? What are their own characteristics? And as arts with the same origin of culture, what are their similarities and similarities? I suddenly had many problems, and as far as I knew at the time, it included many songs from rural China, which surprised me to be honest. The above aroused my interest.
To study Chinese folk rap, from 1988 to 1995, I visited China for field surveys five times, and used the rap theme "Leting Drum" circulating in Leting County and Luannan County of Hebei Province as the research object to explore the rural oral culture including rap. From 1993 to 1994, I conducted a nine-month investigation of literature on Beijing.
Folk rap art is basically centered on oral inheritance in rural China, and does not require text book words. Long rap is very improvised and can insert "jokes". Depending on the occasion, the lyrics of the book will also undergo vivid changes. The interaction between rap and listeners is very active.
In my book "Oral Culture in Northern China - Books, Documents, and Performances of Rap", I conducted a detailed analysis of the long-form lyrics of the Leting Drum "Dangshui". At the point of "living art", the singer, known as "flowing water", uses freely changing lyrics to clarify what is fixed and what is changing.
However, oral inheritance does not mean that these arts have not been influenced by printed books such as "Drum Ci" and "Damong Ci". There are also "writers" among the rap art authors in rural China who organize old versions and create new books.
Junko Ikeguchi wrote "Oral Culture in Rural Areas in Northern China".
China News Service reporter: You said that Chinese folk rap culture is a "living culture". What aspects does the so-called "living" mean? As a culture, there are always core contents that have been passed down. What do you think are the unchanging core elements?
Junko Ikeguchi: For example, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a well-known classical repertoire in China. Storyteller will not change the core part of the story and the lyrics, but will express it innovatively in a way that attracts the attention of modern people. The performance is located in the urban grand bookstore or the rural square, the performance is limited to one day or multiple consecutive days, what kind of people are the listeners, how the live reaction is, etc., depending on these different factors, the final presentation of the performers will be very different. The better the performer, the better it is to make various flexible and changeable adjustments.
This kind of "performance" has been the core of folk rap culture attracting people since ancient times. It is not a fixed "literary and artistic work", but it exists as a performing art, and none of them is the same performance.I think this is the spiritual core of rap culture, and its cultural charm not only crosses national boundaries, but also reaches the heart.
Xunchang, Henan, folk storytellers performed at the Duzhai Book Fair in Xuchang County. China News Service Photo by Niu Shupei
China News Service Reporter: You mentioned, "It is important to see the other country with your own eyes, and direct communication is very important." What do you feel the most during the years of field surveys in China?
Junko Ikeguchi: There are many "writers" in rural China with rich life experience and extremely talented life, and everyone's experience is very vivid. For example, Mr. Zhang Jianguo (1939-2018) I met during my field survey. He was not only proficient in the three folk arts of film, drums and Pingju in Leting County, but also created scripts by himself.
There are many people with rich knowledge and noble character among the storytellers and accompanists, and they are the teachers of the researchers. By dealing with them, I learned about the source of "jokes" in Chinese folk rap that are rooted in the depths of life. For example, a blind accompanior I met has experienced a lot of hardships in life, but has become more tolerant and kind to others and life. This makes me feel that the inheritance of art is always inseparable from the warmth of human nature in terms of connotation.
When I was doing research in rural China in my early years, I was studying for a master's degree and didn't have much savings at hand, so I couldn't say that there was any material return to the respondents, but the local farmers did their best to prepare everything for us. After returning to Japan, I learned that the Hebei region where I was investigating at that time had suffered severe damage from the Japanese side during the war, but the villagers at that time did not mention the past to me. The tolerance of the rural Chinese people has still moved me deeply.
China News Service reporter: What do you think are the distinctive characteristics of Chinese folk oral culture? What are the differences in oral cultures between China and Japan?
Junko Ikeguchi: Compared with Japanese oral culture, various Chinese dialects have different types of music, and the combination of language and music is very strong. Like classical lyrics, new bibliography of Chinese folk rap is also being created. In Japan, it is difficult to produce new scripts because the social atmosphere respects classical works too much.
I think Chinese folk art has become a part of people's culture, entertainment and life, and drama, musical instruments and music genres often change. Japan's "Neng" and "Crazy Words" have a history of about 650 years, Kabuki and humanoid Jing Liuli (Quyi Opera) have a history of about 400 years, but Japan hardly uses new instruments. Just as Chinese Tang Dynasty musical instruments still exist in Japanese elegance music performances today, Japan has a strong tendency to "keep it as it is".
For example, the Yoshitao Festival in the human-shaped Jingliuli is a representative rap music in Japan. The script, music, and Taiho Sanmi threads are as unchanged as in the Edo period. They cherish the strings of silk threads and maintain subtle tone. Although there are new scripts, the popular plays are stories from the 17th and 18th centuries, and beginners can enjoy them by reading Japanese subtitles.
Japanese Kabuki performance. China News Agency reporter Hou Yu photo
China News Agency reporter: China and Japan have a long history of music exchanges. How do you evaluate the music exchanges between the two countries in history and their impact on cultural exchanges?
Junko Ikeguchi: The cultural exchange between China and Japan was first introduced to Japan, and Japan completed localization while accepting influence. Taking the guqin score as an example, Japan is like the Chinese cultural relics storage warehouse. The ancient score and the instruments of Masakurayuan can still be seen in Japan. Traditional music exchanges are an important part of the exchanges between the two countries.
In recent years, Chinese students in musicology, ethnological musicology and other majors have broken through the barriers of languages between China and Japan and published many excellent research results. I am very much looking forward to more Chinese people studying Japanese music in the future and more Japanese people studying Chinese music.
Because the research on this culture and different cultures are very different in terms of their perspectives and research methods, Japanese people tend to stick to detailed topics and problems when studying Japanese music, and tend to have a broad vision. When Chinese people study Japanese shakuhachi and Japanese zheng, they will naturally have a comparative perspective.
In addition to traditional music, the spread of game music in China and Japan today is also confirming that "culture is easy to cross borders." For example, popular Chinese games are popular in Japan, and Chinese culture such as Peking Opera displayed in the games attracts young Japanese people.
China News Service reporter: 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. Can you talk about your feelings about folk cultural exchanges between the two countries based on your research? In what aspects should the folk cultural exchange between the two countries be strengthened?
Junko Ikeguchi: At the level of folk communication, it is very important to understand the opponent who is "shoulder". My new book, "Dumplings Farewell: Portraits of China, Urban and Rural Areas" (2021 Kyoto: Lighting House), describes unforgettable characters encountered in China over 30 years of field surveys, and records the encounters and separations with men, women, young and old in Hebei, Ningbo, Xiamen, Hunan and other places. This book was unexpectedly welcomed by many readers. I saw some readers expressing this feeling: "The Chinese are also enthusiastic, open-minded and charming to others in the harsh times and environment."
"Farewell Dumplings: China's Urban and Rural Portraits" (Japanese)
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, continuing to strengthen folk exchanges and deepen understanding of each other will help the two countries deepen friendship between people and help the two countries better face the future. (End)
Source: China News Service
