Some Observations on the Chinese Art of Storytelling
Some Observations on the Chinese Art of Storytelling

Author(s): Věnceslava Hrdličková
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Sociology of the arts, business, education
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: Chinese storytelling; professional training; forms of Chinese storytelling; prompt book; improvisation;
Summary/Abstract: Chinese storytelling is a representation of an extraordinarily rich creation. In its overall assessment, it is not enough to confine ourselves to studying written texts alone. It is necessary to extend the research to ethnographic methods, enabling us to grasp the range of significant circumstances that accompanied the emergence and practice of storytelling. Only then can we reach positive conclusions about the extent to which storytelling was indeed folk art and to what extent it was dependent on texts written, so to speak, “for the people” by representatives of the educated strata of society. However, it must also be considered that the art of storytelling is rooted in the people and gradually spread to other sections of the population. In evaluating texts, thus, we must always ask ourselves for whom they were intended. To shed light on the extent to which folk storytellers depended on written texts, research into living storytelling traditions provides a great deal of material. Based on this, we can observe that the folk storyteller was a genuinely creative artist within the framework defined by the tradition and was not a mere mechanical reciter of the written text. These texts, conversely, drew inspiration from the oral tradition and were usually intended for reading rather than recitation.

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