folktales

ideology

folk tales have been regarded as an expression of the spirit of the people, of the moral and other values of the society

disturbing questions are raised when we use psychoanalysis to interpret the unconscious meaning of folk tales

1.is subconscious implicitly expressed in all tales in the same way,completely independent of the social structure of the society? or do we first have to know the structure of the society , and the symbolism normally used in that society?

2.can we assume that a given tale expresses the values of the society to which the storyteller belongs? or does the tale express the storyteller's values only？

3. if disregard the second problem and take a collection of folk tales, supposedly representing the tales of a given society, does such a collection really represent the tales of a given society?

will not go into the problem of unconscious values,
but simply study what people openly express when they are asked about their ideas about tales

get around the other two pitfalls

apply a method similar to the survey methods used by sociologists

methodology and reasons

limited to one ethnic group in China, the Hakka of Taiwan,a minority of three to five million

reason:
1.Hakka folklore has been less often studied than the folklore of other ethnic groups in China

Hakka were believed to be backward or more traditional than the other groups.

Hakka cultivate a strong in-group feeling.

difficult to interview cuz of distrust, as the interviewers were Hakka but the information was not to be used by Hakka

but their folklore were preserved well at the same time

2.it is assumed that they differ from the other Chinese groups

to find out weather such an assumption is collect

Hakka regard themselves as the " true" Chinese

as immigrants from the central province of china ( mainly Honan) which they left mainly around the 12th century,but partly earlier and partly later

Subtopic

more than 500 persons were asked a number of questions

the Hakka were asked which stories they knew, which stories they liked or disliked, for what reason, and which they liked best

find out which stories were really widely known in the Hakka community.

compare the body of widely known Hakka stories with the total tales of Chinese and see whether the Hakka
have stories which are not known to other Chinese

if so,whether these stories could contain values

also analyze what themselves said about the kind of stories which they liked or disliked and the reasons for this

It may be dangerous for an outsider to analyze the values of another society

put rural and urban, young and old Hakka on our sample

Hakka living in village are usually more traditional than those that have moved into cities

guess that older people may be more traditional than children

ask directly the question whether there are such males or female stories, have as many women and girls on our sample as men and boys

testing the hypothesis about they have tales which are specially told among men or among women

continuation of an earlier study,

in which we tried to show that each teller of a story is a creative thinker who changes details in a given story

related to the psychological character of the teller

could not test to which degree such changes were a response of the teller to the felt wishes of his audience

the stories were not collected during natural story-telling situations

rectification

asking storytellers who we were able to locate and not on the sample to tell us as many stories as they liked, and at the time and the location they liked

express personal character traits of the teller

assume a storyteller begins with stories which he thinks are most pleasing to the audience then common one

find in his first stories

the values above will be compared with Chinese values

feels that these values and attitudes is colored too much by the educated and upper-class people's so-called Chinese values

feels that Chinese tend to give answers which are expected rather than their individual attitudes and values i.e., Confucian

find values of the common man

May differ from the professed Confucian value system

see whether folktales are one way to get at his values

whether folk tales have recently changed between the parent and the child generations

analysis of personal diaries and letters?

method

material

come from six Taiwan Hakka sources

first five are interviews with hakka

in four of these sources, only those respondents were visited who had in the family at least one child between the ages of 13 and 20, grandparents may be interviewed

to study possible differences between generations

(another project is finding Min Nan families in the same district) try to obtain a regular sample in one case, using ku t'ing sample 174 families 16 individuals

find out all families, which was excluded by the min-nan project, with children between the age of 13 and 20 in ku-t'ing district of Taipei city

then make a random selection from the total body

Subtopic

urban hakka (less than half of total interviews)/but not a true sample

some families moved away so it consists of those Hakka families in that district which interviewers could find (interviews Nos.101-144) in 1970

who were willing to answer the questions (158-187) in 1972

(145-157) in 1971 individuals,mainly fathers,

rural Hakka (more than half of interviews)

first 50 families(1-50)

live in a village two kilometers outside the town of Miao-li

next 50(51-100) 1971

from the village yung ning li near Tao yuan

questions

the number of stories in Taipei samples are much lower than in the other samples

?

social composition

classification do not clearly indicate social class

the husband or father are indicator of social class

who is still telling folktales

hard to find a good Hakka stories teller, who knows many folk tales and likes to tell them when asked or when the situation is suitable, known in the community and especially among children

find a few such men in villages, but they do not often tell stories because of TV in color is typical even in low class family in 1972 children and themselves set in front of TV and enjoy shows.

the good stories tellers in questionnaires of 1970 and 1972 mostly moved away or died in 1972 or denied that they were

ask them whether they still told stories to the children.

in ku t'ing sample, most of them live in the city more than four years, are urbanized and have given up storytelling

缺乏温情

too busy to waste time on the interview

urban interviewers were satisfied as soon as the interviewees had named one or two stories

rural interviewers prodded more and found children mentioned more stories than parents

the majority of our Hakka still tell stories and also know at least one animal tale

To whom are stories told?

asked children from whom they had learned their tales

boys learn more often from male relatives

girls learn equally from male and from female

grandparents are not very important as storytellers

low life expectancy in earlier time

perhaps migration- factors

paternal relatives are much often storytellers than maternal

Stronger in the older generation

reflect the strong paternalistic family structure

certain relatives are never mentioned as storytellers

the sex of oldster is not indicated.

exact relationship of cousins is not given

nor is the exact character of the grandparent

the question about the story they liked most indicate the sources of parents, but children don't mention when they were asked from whom they learned stories

when telling a story they like, children prefer to tell one they have heard against they have read

parents' stories were influenced by what have read or seen as a theatre play or a film recently

parents'

they preferred telling these to stories they had told their own children ten or more years ago, in other words, when children are only 2 or 3 year old

whether there are specific stories which are men's or woman's stories ( turkey example shows that men prefer to decamerone type about the sexual adventures of men in the city, whereas women prefer romantic tales

in material500 stories, no obscene one

the answer indicates that every family member present

men could hardly be kept from telling darling stories

earlier study shows that some sexual tales or jokes could be told in the presence of women, are not uniformly told in an all-men group

interest to study where the borderline is

P23 one man who is a store keeper in kuting sample give the best answer, in which he refers man's stories clearly to sexual stories, but not quiet know what kind of stories these women tell.

other answers generally said when Hakka tell stories, they are usually all together, there is no separation.
it stress the fact that indeed women in Hakka society were freer than women in other communities and were more often together with men

one said women's stories are told when women pluck tea leaves in the mountains, and they deal with love.

in Taipei singles sample, stories which describe the relation of human with a ghost of the other sex are socially acceptable to discuss some aspects of sex behavior e.g. " the woman and the ghost husband" ," Madame white snake" n "the story of the fox ghost"

woman love Madame white snake highly p24

one say some aspect of lv dong bin , three flirts with miss white peony are for man only

men have their stories and woman as well, but only few women will answer questions.

which are good for children n y?

which stories they liked or disliked, which they liked most?

answers were uniformly the same as in the other questions about their own likes

categories

myths legends

Subtopic

categories

myths and legends

more popular among parent generation than the young generation

it seems that among hakka people, just like other chinese, don't have a traditon of myths and legends

historical and patriotic stories( express 忠）

quite common in the city

more liked by old generation and by men

the patriotism does not only about their own group, because these stories including those which have no specific relation to hakka

they like because the stories remind them of home

nobody disliked historic stories

filiality stories（express孝）

concertive, typical rural, told by the parents, more by woman than men

no yound urbanite mention this kind of story

government launched a campaign for filiality which included the publication of a set of postage stamps, depicting some of the famous twenty four examples of filiality

womanly values

daughter-in-law problem

23 ex of filiality

had the book in mind

bout the behavior of son toward their mother

so more liked by mothers

specific tales for western feeling is immoral

kill the son to feed the grandmother since mother is irreplaceable

chinsese see the piety toward mother, while a westerner's compassion is with the young boy

the son is mistreated by stepmother without complains even close to death, father be aware of and want to divorce but the son ask forgive and she is reformed

child by noble behavior rather than revolr can change misbehaving parents

stepmother want to eat carp in winter, whereupon the son sits with bare behind on the ice until it is molten and a carp jumps out of the hole

some extreme stories are not mentioned

instill filial piety in children

virture are china's best tradition

show virtues of women, women are the center of the home

one should be a good wife,then one can come to a good end

ghost stories

more people dislike them

belongs to the more traditional elements in the population, whereupon men like them as much as women dislike them, n younger generation dislikes them much more often than the other generation

fighting stories

wuxia

detetive stories

animal tales

which degree are animal stories known and which kind of stories were known

earlier research: animal stories are not typical of chinese

animal stories mean animals interact with other animals. but respondents included in this category also all kinds of stories in which animals interact with human beings

most people saw them in a deeper sense ,she regard animal stories as symbolic and find in them such social values as hard work and a cooperative spirit

romantic stories

dislike them because tragedy makes people sad

mention dream of the red chamber a novel

mention liangshanpo, its origin by now is certainly a folktale, in which the couple was united only after death

who like literary or long stories mention on of the classical novel or plays, no true folktales

educational stories

stories in which a person mentions a line or give a theme to which one ro more other persons have to make another line with the same grammatical structure and parallel meaning.

tales about customs and festivals

describe the origin of customs and of festivals

more by villagers

hardiest other replaced by non chinese stories or books, these are alive

Subtopic

honor the god and worship them

analyze statements which seem to spring out of the material

they are good because gods should be honor

like stories which are against superstition they against religion

unimportant the role of religion and of relitious practices

people are religious but that they do not like religious stories

tendency of chinese to be "down to earth" when talkin and telling stories, in spite of ample proof to the contrary. that stories tell us to stand on reality, they like to tell own experience against empty stories

be a hero and love your country

courage, bravery in case of danger, sacrifice of life are in all cases praised as positive values

not as often as we would have expected, especially not among young people

treachery is nagative value

patriotism is a male value

stories about fights against the japanese colonial rulers were limited to men over 30

connect with local history, about mountains, springs, and other local points of interest are completely rural stories, preferred by other men

history has always been taught in china as a way to guide the individual toward morality.

some tales stress the ethnic feeling: we are hakka:they are proud of this and proud of their own ancestors

be loyal upright, honest and good 44－52没睇完

loyalty(忠）

to state

to friends

righteousness（义）

righteousness in the meaning of doing one's duty as one is espected to do it

chinese do not have a term correspond to folktale,minjiangushi is not clear

got much material which we do not want to include in our analysis, but which still should be mentioned and discussed

tales and other materials of foreign origin

come from school books or other recently translated sources

folksongs

folk novels , theatre plays , stories and fables from the literature

stories about the origin of festivals

other materials

popular hakka tales from known tale types

divided the material into tales which refer to the tales in typen chinesischer volksmarchen

myths and legend not mentioned in the

fabels filiality stories, anecdotes not originate as folktales but have become folktales in the course of time

compare hakka tales with the tales and jests reported in the typen

typen contains 10 tales which are mentioned 40 or more times

1 of these most common tales is much more frequent in hakka material than in typen, 2 are relatively common in the hakka material, 2 jests are rare, and 3 tales 2 jests are not reported at all

6 tales are relatively often reported in the typen 30-40 times

3 tales are not mentioned in hakka material at all, 3 are rare

10 are mentioned 20-29 times

7 do not occur 1 in rare, 2 are common

result is surprising

the material comes from all parts of china, much is from the area in south china from which the taiwanese hakka emigrated

in 15 common tales which do not occur in hakka collection we cannt see a common element accounting for this, two tales which may not normally be regarded as tales because only be collected in once specific area of china may explain their absence

the jests may be slightly sexy so hakka people might never appreciated, but chapter6 explain they do like these types

typen no14 , in which a woman is threatened by a monster, but a number of animals console her and help her so that the monster comes to grief, this story is not only widely known in mainland china but also in japan, so that we can surmise that during japanese occupation this story was also introduced to taiwan by japanese children's books.

hakka tales which can be identified as tales in typen, the creation of the universe are least often represented,stories about heros and about helpful animals are found most often

the tales which are found in hakka material as more often than in the typen can be said to tbe unexpectedly popular among the hakka because the typen contain more than 3000tales

hositility between cat and rat explain why the rat is the first animal of the chinese zodiac

found in the villages as well as in the city, much more often mentioned by parents

moral:dishonesty will always be punished

cat and dog

appeal more to the older generation and more to males than to the younger generation or the females, all but one respondent were rural, it is a rural story

fall well into the frame of typenno.13 but has some significanct details

the first paragraph underlies a theme which is typical of the hakka: the important of food (father and son)

the god of venus occurs often in folk novels and folk plays as a friendly helper'urbanite

grateful animals typenno.16

all texts come from rural areas, told by more parents than children

the theme of reward for a good deed

two versions one is closer to the normal form, the second one more dramatic

the first text

the good man is about to write his examination papers

the judge is replaced by the examiner

this story usually has the bee, but other versions from the mainland also tell the same story about an ant

the second text

one of the very few show clear elements of modernization

regard as an educational one which tells children that good deeds always will receive a reward

the two old men

about the lost axe

rare tale of the type which juxtaposes the good and the bad man, showing that honest man is rewarded, while the dihonest one is punished

group of telling about the origin of birds(seem to be female story)

husband is bad bird

belonging to typen no.83

is the most common one in our hakka collection and is found in four variants, all of which tell about the origin of birds, mentioned 62 times

typically a rural story

most mentioned by mothers

filial piety, against the mother of the husband,is a theme harped upon by older women who already are or hope soon to be mother-in-laws

the tu-chuan bird

about the origin of the cuckoo

a story about its origin in the classical literature, but it is quite different and is independent of it

told by all rural

the evil stepmother is blamed

tbe bird is the incarnation of the good, filial boy, her own son

why can the cat see at night and the cat-head bird only at night?

only tell specific characteristics of birds

again a strong moral in it: the good one is rewarded, the bad one punished

all from rural respondents

the eagle and the black crane

Subtopic

the origin of the narcissus

a fukien story

another female story

stories about origin are more liked by woman than by men

women liked stories in which a women play a main role

why is the arse of the monkey red

an animal story similar to the parallel bird stories

more a male story

found in rural as well as in urban areas

represented in hakka material as rare as in mainland material

cases of judge pao

urban

suspicion that it has a literary source

the first half is not in the collections of cases of judge pao, which has a parallel to the second half of the story

localize it in a suburb of taipei

seems to intimate that it really happened not too long ago

belongs with the following story to tales about hidden treasures

in this type the most often mentioned on the mainland mohammedans search for treasures ,does not at all occur in our collection

the two which we did find among the hakka are rare on the mainland

hsu men huan

this story was also told by people in taipei who are of min-nan and of hakka origin

the other treasure tale

deals again with the tensions between the husband's mother and his wife

is a variant of typen no.200

quite similar to another stories which appreciate frugality but without conflict in it

another praise of frugality

the man without money

the central motif seems to be known at least since the 18th century, possibly a thousand years earlier

meng jiangnv(typen no.210)

this interest comes from a film with the same name which was shown in 1970

telling her heroic sacrifice for her husband

zhu ying tai (typen no. 212)

her love affair with liang shan bo was the subject of 2 films and several operas and long series of ballads

3 jests

the monkey divides the sugar

in typen it is told about a teacher

illustrate history by using a cake of student which he eats up as part of his illustration

a more literate one, it presuppose a school in which children learn about chinese history

in hakka the main actor is a monkey

admonition to be harmonious and not to fight

all from rural

even is understood by the illiterates

a jest

the first one is simple, with only the implicit moral that greed is bad

the second variant goes even further in the description of greed

the third one come close to typen no201

a father who does not want to spend money on the funeral of his own father but changes his mind when his child intimate they would treat him the same way

conclusion

the difference between the hakka collection and the mainland collection

of the 26 stories or jests most often reported from the mainland, 15 do not at all appear in the hakka data, and six are rare

we could not find an explanation for this lack of so many popular stories,

except that 2 of the jests were quiet literary and 2 others slightly sexy, and that 2 tales are for certain reasons over-represented in the typen

15 hakka stories and jests which are more often reported than one would expect

only 1 has no clear moral(zhu ying tai)

4 stress values of the family

typically confucian virtues

not typically confucian

only 1 extols a value which is not confucian

the belief in fate

the poor is destined to become rich by finding a treasure

add 14 stories and 5 jests which also found in typen ,but not more often than their mainland varients and which are found in the hakka material at least 5 times

the 7th fairy (typen no 34)

the chinese version of the swan maiden tale

the popularity among the hakka may be caused by the film

grand-aunt tiger(10 times) typen no11

had found earlier that this tale is almost universally known among the min-nan people and is one of the most common mainland tales

a variant of the tales about the good and the bad man (typen no.29) 5 times

stress the importance of good moral behavior,especially between brothers

usually the older brother who is bad and who is, thererfore, punished,

while in stories in which there is no difference in moral behavior between brothers or sisters ,

but only a difference in good luck or in age, somtimes the older, sometimes the younger one has a misfortune, as in the variants to the grand aunt tiger story

no taboo in discussing farting among Chinese

but that a loud or stinking fart is often the subject of a joke

two common jokes both deal with the stupid son-in-law whose wife is clever

in both jests the importance of food is stressed

in one (typen s, 6a:5) the wife is afraid he will not behave during the dinner in her father's house

the secondz( typen s ,6a, j6)est does not give the clever wife an important role, except that she prepares the gifts which her husband is supposed to bring to her

the popularity of jests of this type was somewhat surprising to me

in the 1920s and 30s that the mainland material was collected, arranged marriages were, at least in rural areas, still relatively common.

young women sometimes found themselves bethrothed to an unloved, stupid husband???????

at least they found that their own husband was inferior to the husband of their sisters

but at the present time, even in villages, arranged marriages are the exception

therefore, assume that these stories somewhat went out of fashion

the popularity among the hakka does not seem to be matched by a similar popularity among the min-nan people of taiwan

and may indicate a more conservative general attitude of the the hakka

a third jest (typen no.s24)

tells of a burglar who hears in the house a man talking to himself, or a couple talking to one another, believes that the talk refers to himself and runs away without stealing

can easily take on an obscene form

Subtopic

other popular hakka tales not found in the typen

but which occur at least 5 times in hakka material

2 of the new stories deal with the origin or characteristics of the hakka

what we have is usually given in the form of a pseudo-historical report

the report given s a folk tale is in its pride and its use of modernistic words, influenced by a book

while non-chinese minorities have elaborate and beautiful tales

the story which tells why hakka women love to sing love songs is more interesting

the hakka are known to be the most song-loving ethnic group among the han chinese

a young scholar, either the tang poet liu tsung yuan or sung scholar lo yin, proved to be as good in singing as she was

either the girl alone or both of them are changed into rocks

self -respect of the hakka and gives the impression that it is a relatively new formulation

we cannot say that these new tales do not occur on the mainland, in some cases we are sure that they do exist

we may be able to say that they were either so rare that we did not inlcude them

not able to understand the local Hakka dialect, transcribe the tape into written or spoken manderin in some expert help.

first set of interviews in a village near Miaoli
second in a village near Tao yuan
no.145~151 in Taipei city
101~144 and 158~188 as well

work at the center for Chinese studies of the university of California at Berkeley