Itinerant beggars performing for funeral, north Shanxi 2018. My photo.

In vocal traditions of Chinese expressive culture (as I keep harping, or drumming, on), the neat pigeon-holes of folk-song, narrative-singing, and opera disguise a continuum from solo singing though to fully-staged genres with larger forces, all oscillating between a range of points along the ceremonial–entertainment continuum—see my

• “Reading between the lines: reflections on the massive Anthology of folk music of the Chinese peoples”, Ethnomusicology 47.3 (2003), pp.287–337, e.g. §4.4.

Within the Anthology, one often needs to consult all three rubrics: folk-song, narrative-singing, and opera—and indeed dance. Along with my focus on ritual traditions and instrumental ensembles, narrative-singing (aka “story-telling”) is often relevant to my studies. So I’ve recently added a tag in the sidebar for shuoshu 说书 (aka shuochang 说唱, or in official parlance quyi 曲艺)—I’ll try and keep updating this roundup.

Another issue of taxonomy in the Anthology: whereas “religious music” is largely consigned to the instrumental music volumes, some ritual groups accompanying their vocal liturgy only with percussion are found within the narrative-singing volumes, such as the household Daoists of Changwu in Shaanxi. Also classified somewhat uncomfortably under “narrative-singing” is the substantial theme of

• “precious scrolls” (baojuan)—surveyed here, with links to Hebei, Gansu, and south Jiangsu.

From Rostislav Berezkin, “Scripture-telling (jiangjing) in the Zhangjiagang area
and the history of Chinese storytelling” (2011).

Of course, rather than being constrained by narrow categories, we need to place the variety of expressive cultures in social context. Studies of “narrative-singing” often highlight the refined urban entertainment of urban stages and teahouses, with a largely sinological, literary approach to late imperial history—itself a worthy topic—tending to reify performances that are in fact animated by a strong element of improvisation. And as with folk-singing, opera, and indeed instrumental music, this may distract us somewhat from the ethnography of changing modern society. In rural China, ritual contexts are strong; much story-telling takes place in the context of temple fairs and domestic blessings. The rural perspective is significant across all genres, but I find it particularly salient in coverage of narrative-singing. It may also remind us of the importance of poverty. Itinerant blind performers are prominent.

Salutary instances include these two posts on Shanxi:

• Xu Tong: subaltern lives, featuring the documentary Cut out the eyes.
• Here I introduce Liu Hongqing’s harrowing exposé of the lives of poor peasant families in the Taihangshan mountains, based on a blindmens’ “propaganda troupe”.

Other regions featured on this site, in more or less depth, include

Shaanbei:

• Bards of Shaanbei
• Amateur musicking in urban Shaanbei.

and under Chinese film classics of the early reform era, Old well and Life on a string.

Gansu:

• Coronavirus 2
• Connecting social trauma and expressive culture, and
• sequel
• see also under Ningxia.

Beijing and Tianjin:

• A Czech couple in 1950s’ Tianqiao
• Musicking at the Qing court 1: suite plucking
• The street players

Henan:

• Bards of Henan.

Moving further south,

Hunan:

• Famine and expressive culture
• Yang Yinliu’s 1956 field survey.

South Fujian and Taiwan:

• the wondrous ballads of nanguan (nanyin),
• along with other traditions in Taiwan.

Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta:

• Dou Wun, with sequel here.

Note also

• the CD set Shuochang: the ultimate art of Chinese storytelling from this essential collection of archive recordings,

and under Chinoperl.

* * *

Further afield, see e.g.

• Tibet: some folk ritual performers
• Expressive cultures of the Himalayas
• Tibet: ritual singing in an Amdo community
• Blind minstrels of Ukraine
• The Balkans, under Musical cultures of east Europe
• Some Kurdish bards
• Anatolian bards rock.

Navigational tools coming in handy, I’ve added this post to my Roundup of roundups!