Singers of Sipsongbanna: Folklore and authenticity in contemporary China

This dissertation uses folklore to examine the relationship between the state and ethnic minorities in China. Taking a performer-centered perspective, it explores the ways in which storytellers' relative positioning as professional artists may play out larger questions of social power, gender, and ethnic identity. The dissertation also examines the impact of tourism and modernization on the culture of the Tai (Dai) minority in Sipsongbanna, Yunnan province, China. Tais have largely ceded the representation of their culture to the Chinese state, while maintaining another set of practices for themselves. Although state tourist agencies use dance by young women to sell the region's "primitive, sexually open minorities" to domestic tourists, Tais privately preserve a sophisticated literary tradition of professional oral poetry known as zhangkhap, largely unknown to outsiders. These classically trained storytellers narrate epic Buddhist tales and improvise humorous male-female duet-duels for weddings, full moons, monk initiations, and housewarmings. Today, there are two Tai cultures in Sipsongbanna, one performed for outsiders and another performed for Tais. Moreover, graving cross-border exchange by Tais with Southeast Asia, and the explosive revival of Tai Buddhism in the past decade, have both informed an emerging native debate about what constitutes authentic Tai culture and authentic ethnic identity. These views are expressed in interviews with three generations of zhangkhaps, and in their songs, which display literary merit and sharp wit. An emerging genre of pop songs in Tai (addressing social issues such as assimilation and HIV/AIDS) is also discussed. Together, they indicate a wealth of hitherto-unstudied literature, which enriches China's, and the world's, literary canon. The appendices include song-texts by some renowned zhangkhaps.