Symposium on Chinese storytelling - past and present

Oslo Symposium: The Interplay of Oral and Written Traditions in Chinese Fiction, Drama and Performance Literature

Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi

Mer informasjon på websiden Chinese Storytelling www.shuoshu.org.

The symposium “Interplay of Oral and Written Traditions in Chinese Fiction, Drama and Performance Literature” aims to provide a forum where issues of Chinese vernacular literature, oral and written, are debated. It takes place 5 and 6 November at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Storytelling plays an important role in Chinese popular culture, in a contemporary as well as in a historical perspective. More detailed knowledge about the storytellers’ verbal art in performance may give a key to some of the much disputed questions of the oral origin of certain documents in the history of vernacular literature.

Illustration for "Chinese storytelling"

 - The symposium aims to provide a forum where issues of Chinese vernacular literature, oral and written, are debated. The thematic framework is, however, intended to cover a wider spectrum of issues, reflecting the current research of the group of scholars invited, says Vibeke Børdahl.

"The Interplay of Oral and Written Traditions in Chinese Fiction, Drama and Performance Literature” is a (for speakers) invitation-only symposium, hosted by The Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, convening at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, and sponsored by the Norwegian Research Council, to form the conclusion of the project “Wu Song Fights the Tiger in Chinese Storytelling,” under the Research  Council's Program of Cultural Studies.

List of presentations:

André Lévy (France): “Jin Ping mei and the art of storytelling”

Margaret Wan(USA): “Popular literature and local culture in the Qing: Martial Arts fiction and local chantefables

Liangyan Ge (USA): “The Lord Bao Cihua cluster and the formation of a story-cycle”

Vibeke Børdahl (Norway): “‘Wu Song Fights the Tiger’: Interplay of oral and written traditions in fiction, drama and performance literature”

Anne McLaren (Australia): “Folk narratives from the Lower Yangzi Delta Region in China”

Boris Riftin (Russia): “Chinese performed arts and popular prints”

Jens-Christian Sørensen (Denmark): “Database of the project ‘Wu Song Fights the Tiger in Chinese Storytelling’”

 

Symposiet arrangeres av  Nordisk Institut for Asianstudier, Norges Forskningsråd og Vibeke Børdahl. Mer informasjon på websiden Chinese Storytelling www.shuoshu.org.