The Regeneration of Traditional Music in a Chinese Rural Village

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The loess plateau (or Yellow River Valley), the place of the cultural origin of mainland China, might be seen as a backward district. But during the last two decades, the 'economic reform' and the mordernisation had an effect on this area, in particular Yangjiagou village which is located in northern Shaanxi province. Here, people live in cavelike dwellings (yaodong) dug into the mountainside. They cultivate the mountain (loess hills) and grow mainly potato and millets. There are many kinds of music and sound in this village, and the 'sonic environment' of this village is an extraordinary one because of this specific landscape.The most traditional and popular music is 'chuidayue' (literally 'blowing-hitting music' with shawm and various percussion), which plays an important role in wedding and funeral rituals. While funeral ritual was preserved very rigidly, wedding was changed drastically since 1980's because of economic and social changes.
In the beginning of spring 2004, some Japanese researchers organised a wedding ceremony which was planed to revive the lost wedding tradition, including the carrying of bride in a sedan chair, clothing, food, music and so on. It seems that this project was very welcomed in the village, and the villagers acknowledged the value of their lost traditions. Yet, the subsequent wedding of a villager took place in a modern style, in which the bride rode in the car and they hired a Western brass band which played popular music.
I think the traditional 'chuidayue' will disappear from the wedding and even from the funeral in the near future. In fact, during a funeral in 2004, for the first time a villager used the CD of Western classical music such as the Mozart's 'Requiem'.
In this reconstructed wedding ceremony, the foreign researchers showed their own notion of aesthetic value to the villagers. But there exists a gap between researchers and the local people, since the aesthetic value of the villagers is changing under Westernization and globalization.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• Introduction
• 1 The sound of the village daily life
• 2 The changing sound of the village (1949-present)
• 3 Chuidayue, the music of ritual
• 4 A project of the 'regeneration of a traditional wedding'
• Conclusion
• Notes
• REFERENCES