The Present Significance Of Folkloristics

The present significance of folkloristics is the research on folklore values of Chinese contemporary folklorists.This year marks the 100th anniversary of 'Folk song campaign'.So to discuss 'Folk values',the ontological proposition,which as the fundamental standpoint and evaluation standard of folklore values,is not only the real demands of the development of folklore disciplines,but also the echo of one hundred year history of folkloristics.What is the value of folklore in the context of urbanization,industrialization,modernization and globalization?What is the practical significance of folkloristics research?How does folkloristics play a role in cultural progress,ideological construction and social development?And what should folkloristics work in these areas?These problems are not only the core proposition of the study of folklore ontology,but also the decisive factor of the role orientation of folklorists in the academic field and social domain.Therefore,it must be a practical problem that contemporary folklorists often ask themselves and try to solve under the changing circumstances of political,economic,cultural,academic and academic patterns.Meanwhile,outside the field of folkloristics,there is also a question about the role and existence value of folklore and folkloristics:is folkloristics still useful?Even some people use this kind of interrogative description as a denial of folkloristics existence value.Therefore,the present significance of folkloristics really requires us to give a clear answer at present.This study takes 'folk values' as the theme and 'Chinese contemporary folklorists' as the research objects,then selects 20 folklorists in-depth interviews,receiving more than 300 thousand words of oral materials,which can adequately express personal academic thought.Grounded theory of qualitative research method is used to analyze the oral data and literature studies together.Folk values consensus of values community represented by these 'Chinese contemporary folklorists' is concluded by analyzing,clustering,induction and comprehensive demonstration.The thesis is divided into eight parts,including introduction,conception and theories of reference about folklore value,folklorists interviews and oral data analysis,themes interpretation,the values of folklore,folkloristics value,the status of folklore disciplines and the way of social value of folklorists,summary and prospect.Consensus of folklore values created by research includes the following aspects:(1)The value of the folklore and folkloristics is embodied in three dimensions-'human individual,specific group,and the entire human race'.On the human individual daily life level,folklore has the normative value for daily life,and folkloristics has a value to explain,service,and improve People's Daily life.On ideological level for specific groups,folklore has the value of consciousness foundation including local identity,nationality identity and national identity,the value of folkloristics is to serve the development of country and nation and construction of ideology.At the construction level of the whole human knowledge system,folklore has the value to fully reflect the genealogy of human knowledge,and folkloristics has the value to construct a complete genealogy of human knowledge.(2)The status of folklore.On the one hand,folkloristics plays an important role in in the service of People's Daily life,social and cultural development and ideological construction;it has never been weakened in the society.Even in the field of non-folkloristics,the theory and method of folkloristics have been used to deal with various social affairs relating with folklore and social culture.On the other hand,folkloristics has the basic conditions to rise to a first-level discipline,both from the academic effects on other disciplines and the ability to solve social problems.(3)The way of social value of folklorists.Under the current social system,folklorists should co-create values with government and other value subjects on the premise of upholding and maintaining the independence of scholars by playing their own value and the social value of folkloristics,establishing the idea of common destiny,and guided by the value co-creation idea.Meanwhile,it is necessary to carry forward the team spirit of the old folklorists,do well in folkloristics,and make the value of folkloristics greater.In the field of domestic folkloristics,this study has a certain characteristics of experimental,exploratory and creativity in the research proposition,process,and methods as follows:The first is research contents.Proposing the concept of folklore values has special meaning in the field of folkloristics.The researches about the value of folklore and folkloristics,the effects of folkloristics and folklorists on the society have been figured out in the previous academic works,but most is referring in fragmentation and lack of systematic research.This study tries to get the consensus of folk values community by research on these key propositions of folklore ontology systematically.The second is research path.This study takes the research path from the personal narrative to collective consensus,and regards the study room of folklorists as a field,collecting their individual academic ideas of information by in-depth interviews.Then this study forma the group consensus of folklore value community through qualitative research methods to analyze,cluster and induce these information.The third is the vividness of materials.Through in-depth interviews from 20 folklorists and folk professionals,their aged from 50 to 92,this study received more than 300 thousand words of orality.The interview process itself for them is a personal and deep review of the development of folkloristics disciplines.The orality has both theoretical depth and been injected into the affection of respondents by distinct theme and vivid language.These materials themselves are very valuable oral histories of the development of folkloristics.'Folklore is never lonely.' During the interview,the chairman of the China Folklore Society,Professor Chao Gejin,gave the author great encouragement and make him continue to go along this path,do further perfect the pilot study,strive for more theoretical and practical significance of results,and do a little for folkloristics theory construction in future academic study.