The Industrialization Of Peach Wood Culture In Feicheng, Shandong Province And The Emergent Mechanism Of Folk Art

In China,the culture of peach wood has been considered having a long history.Scholars’ research on the issue apply magic theory, Totemism and Animism to answer several related questions such as the origin,function and custom transformation about peach culture.Besides these questions,the folk religion aspect“defending evils” has been very much discussed,but focusing on modern people’s life,the transformation and status of peach wood culture in now days still need the researchers’ more attention and efforts.Most documents talked about the peach wood culture phenomenon in historical era.The case of this thesis,which talked about the emergence of peach wood curving in Feicheng Shandong Province since 2000 has typical meaning.The social context and interaction mechanism of new folk art need more exploration.Comparing to the “center-local” interaction of the Chinese Bamboo Root Art by Yutuka Suga at Tokyo University and the “three forces ”(politics,elite,grassroots forces) interaction of Chinese Farmer Painting by Zheng Tuyou at Fudan University,this thesis will draw somehow different conclusions based on filed work and first hand materials.Feicheng located in middle of Shandong Province,west side of Mount Tai.The city has a long history of planting peach trees,which was the most important product since early Qing dynasty.Going through a long and uneven history,the area of peach tree was above 6667 hectare in 2000 there.Local people also believe that peach wood could defend evils and there are some customs in different situations.In2001,inspired by the people in other area, the first local workshop,which used peach wood as raw material and specialized in producing the sword of peach wood began running their business.Till 2013,there were more than 150 workshops and the chain store all over China was more than 1000.The sales revenue is more than 800 million RMB,40 thousand employees worked in the field.Based on the above,thegovernment intentionally operates the peach wood culture,combing with the project of “constructing the peach city of China” by the application on Intangible Heritage and the foundation of museum.To sum up,the thesis will take the peach wood curving craft in Feicheng,Shandong province as a case,present local inspiration to create the industrialization and government’s operation to “construct the peach city of China”,and then try to reveal the emergent conditions and mechanism of the local folk art in modern China.There are 5 chapters.The 1stchapter is an introduction,which review the related academic achievements from 3 aspects:the research on peach wood culture,the research on relation between folklore and the reconstruction of local culture,the research on the emergent mechanism of folk art.The 2ndchapter will present a brief introduction of filed spot,including the geographic environment and peach tree cultivation.Based on the description of foundation, the mechanism of social action and the pattern of industrial chain of the creation of peach wood curving from the folk force, the 3rdchapter will reveal the process how it developed from zero to industry by the local force.The 4thchapter will present the operation on the intangible heritage and museum from the local government and to uncover the interaction between the folk art and the reconstruction of local culture.The final chapter is conclusion.Reviewing the above chapters and having a academic dialogue,the thesis will summarize the emergent conditions and mechanism of the local folk art in modern China.There are 3 conclusions,we can get from the case study.The 1stone is that the folk art emerged and developed into industry by the creative and decent efforts from the local folk force and had quite a scale,which we describe the situation and process as industrialization.The 2ndone is that the interaction between culture and nature is the social practical logic,which broke the previous objective shortcoming in the emergent process of folk art. The 3rdone is the intentional handling from the local government assisted in the emergence of folk art and reconstructed the local culture.