How Love Stories Progress in Folk Songs: The Narrative Dynamics in Two <i>Tujia</i> Minority Ballads

Abstract

<i>Tujia</i> minority people are renowned for their talents in improvising and singing a wide range of folk songs, among which <i>Xiaodiao</i> is particularly popular with their young generations who tend to make a confession of love or show a wide variation on the theme of love and marriage. A young male and/or female singer, whether solo or antiphonal, expresses their overflow of strong feelings with lyrics and tunes in a straightforward and sometimes quite bold manner. The “plot” that is embedded in a folk song, however, requires careful analysis in terms of narrative progression, or rather narrative dynamics, so as to uncover how the singer’s affection or the conflict between the lovebirds develops. Along with a brief introduction to ballad <i>Xiaodiao</i> and a theoretical term borrowed from narratology as an analytical tool, the present article is intended to explore how love stories are told in two <i>Tujia</i> folk songs translated by one of the authors. It seems that, albeit the national character of the Chinese people being mostly rather reserved, wooing by singing has a long tradition with strong socio-cultural grounds, especially in an agrarian country where people mostly live in very harsh mountainous areas where finding a life partner to ensure a better chance of survival and to carry on the ancestral line becomes a top priority. The significance of this research lies in its detailed analysis of specific <i>Tujia</i> folk songs within a narrative dynamic framework, which may shed some light on a broader approach to interpreting lyrical texts. The qualitative analysis does show us the possibility for the singer to construct and the audience to reconstruct a complete love story.