Folk soft power in nation-state building: the political use of folk culture in post-Mao China

ABSTRACT

Folk culture was typically associated with rural superstitions and feudal norms. It was appropriated by the state and intellectuals to modernize the nation and mobilize the masses to unshackle China from the grip of the imperialist invasion in Republican China, and was later revolutionized to help construct socialist China. However, after being condemned as the Four Olds, folk culture experienced a nationwide revival in post-Mao China. This article explores the official use of folk culture in realizing domestic political goals in post-Mao China, a strategy that I call ‘folk soft power.’ Through a case study of the largest folk art fair in contemporary rural China, I examine how the fair received official endorsements as a social basis for building a socialist spiritual civilization and a harmonious society in the reform era. It was also heritagized as a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH) to create a shared cultural identity in the new millennium. I argue that the Chinese authorities deploy folk soft power to reproduce a people-oriented state and a Chinese nation rooted in folk culture. Folk soft power deliberately makes light of state presence to consolidate regime legitimacy and reorient the meaning of Chineseness.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese folk culture
• folk soft power
• intangible cultural heritage
• domestic cultural policies
• nation-state building

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Quyi is a form of performing arts, and in China, refers to various types of storytelling and ballad singing arts.

2. Si Lianchen wrote an article entitled ‘Dui Majieshuhui yuanyu “yanyoushuo” de shangque’ [Discussion on the Origin of the Majie Folk Art Fair dated back to the Yanyou period of the Yuan dynasty], which was published in the book entitled Shushanquhai [Book Mountain Performance Sea] in 2003. This book was only for internal circulation within the Baofeng County Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

3. Tao Dun was elected as the first president of the Association after the Cultural Revolution in 1979.

4. According to Zhang Lingyi’s speech at the Forum of The Majie Folk Art Fair Intangible Cultural Heritage Conservation and Development in 2006.

5. According to a personal conversation with a former organizing committee member of the Fair on December 21, 2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wang Jiabao

Wang Jiabao is Lecturer at the Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya. She received her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies in Asia from the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on the genealogy of the discourse of ‘folk’ or minjian in modern and contemporary China.