Heluo dagu chuantong dashu xuan (Selected Traditional Grand Stories from Heluo Drumsinging): An Attempt to Negotiate between the Fixed and Plastic Aspects of Chinese Traditional Narrative Oral Literature

Abstract

Heluo dagu is a genre of narrative drumsinging that emerged in the early twentieth century in Henan Province. There has been a lack of studies on how long stories of this genre are produced, adapted to suit specific delivery styles, and transmitted through generations of performers. To document the recent and present status of the oral literature performed in this genre, the authors of Heluo dagu chuantong dashu xuan (Selected Traditional Grand Stories from Heluo Drumsinging) transcribed and edited the full text and selected musical passages from five dashu (grand stories). This article describes the transmission of the genre, introduces the rationale of transcribing live performances that the authors collected through fieldwork, and discusses the methodology used in the book. It concludes with a look at the question of the dynamics between living and fixed texts in this tradition.