This article integrates structuralist methodology, evolutionary linguistics and recent developments in paleogenetics to reinterpret a wondertale, The Three Enchanted Princes. The narrative contrasts darkness with light, wilderness with cultivation and bloodthirsty animality with civilized human form, concluding by celebrating the transition to agriculture, purposeful property management and wedlock. The story’s solar and patriarchal stance frames moon-governed enchantment as a state of instability and chaos to be overcome by cultivation and daylight. By examining motifs of lunar periodicity, the study identifies a recurring but under-theorised narrative pattern in which it is the moon which lies behind the transformations. We argue that wondertales can be read through a time-resistant ritual-narrative syntax in which periodic enchantment mediates shifting structures of kinship, subsistence and temporal order, allowing earlier lunar logics to persist, often in marginal or demonised form, within later symbolic systems.
The aim of the text is to study the way in which the funeral song, a mournful, interactive, narrative genre that frames the ritual process of exit from life is transformed when its content changes. In other words, interaction between the morphological expression and the content on the one hand and social function on the other hand is a basic issue in the text. The tradition of lament in Greek history is not a modern phenomenon. It became a significant poetic art in the Iliad by Homer, who, however, used the existing poetic tradition. Taking into consideration this historical tradition, an attempt is made to understand the way in which the funeral song is used as a genre of oral literature, in order to honor and glorify those who were killed while fighting for the liberation of the homeland.
The South China island of Hainan is home to large numbers of non-Han ethnic minori-ties. Owing to its distinct geography and population, sorcery (variously defined) has been practiced on Hainan, and the island is often associated with sorcery in online, literary and popular media discourses. We explore the dynamic relationship between the craft of Gin (Jin 禁 in Mandarin Chinese), a local sorcery supposedly practised by ethnic minorities in Hainan, and perception and imagination of this practice on the Chinese social media platform Douyin. Relying on online interaction content generated by Hainan-based users of either Han Chinese or ethnic minority origins, this study examines the expression of folklore themes and figures through the algorithmically mediated popular imagination. The paper finds that the social media platform offers individuals interacting online a space to engage in vernacular discourse and creative expression along folkloric lines. However, its online folklore problematically represents and reproduces dominant perspectives on Hainan’s geographical, ethnic, gender and economic divides. We argue that an opaque content recommendation algorithm often boosts sensationalised engagement and decontextualised communication. Further research directions into folklore on social media in China are proposed.
This study investigates the transformation of Fujian Youshen from a localized folk ritual into a mediatized form of living heritage in the digital era through the lens of Critical Heritage Studies (CHS). As an open and evolving everyday cultural tradition grounded in local temple networks, lineage systems and kinship relations, Youshen was long insignificant and positioned outside mainstream state-led heritage narratives. Yet, recent years have witnessed Youshen extending beyond its traditional lineage and regional contexts, becoming a mediatized form of heritage with a broader public presence. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Changle (Fuzhou), Quanzhou, alongside media textual analysis, this paper explains that Youshen has shifted heritage value from historical authenticity toward forms of ritual efficacy produced through visual mediatization, digital aesthetics and sensory participation. The case of Youshen demonstrates how living heritage is continually reproduced through visual mediatization. The vitality of cultural heritage lies in its capacity to remain connected to lived experience, sensory participation and shifting social contexts.
hinese folklore studies possesses a long, complex trajectory shaped by local social, cultural and political discourses. While European and North American folklore often seeks ‘the past in the present’, this guest editorial introduction argues that Chinese folklore operates by finding ‘the present in the past’. We discuss the academic discipline of Chinese folklore studies as part of Chinese folklore itself, exploring the connections between folklore; folklore theories; and Chinese understandings of national culture, traditions and the past. The paper examines folklore in relation to constructions of Chinese history and the impact of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) movement, which integrates fragmentary folklore into the nation’s grand historical narrative. The introduction also outlines how digital communication technologies and social media are reshaping contemporary folklore and performance practices. Collectively, the special section’s empirical papers highlight the continuous negotiation of authenticity, lineage and commercialisation, demonstrating that while traditions adapt or decline, Chinese folklore remains a dynamic, evolving process that continually thrives in the present.
