Singing a Chinese Nation: Heritage Preservation, the Yuanshengtai Movement, and New Trends in Chinese Folk Music in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract In mainland China, television and radio stations, print media, publishing houses, and research institutions are state-owned; the internet and record companies are tightly regulated; and public concerts are either government-sponsored or government-permitted. The emergence of a cultural phenomenon, the rise and fall of a musical genre, or the success of a musician is always a result of or at least related to a centralized control mechanism. This article examines new trends in Chinese folk music in the twenty-first century and reveals how the centralized control operates to shape music traditions from various ethnic groups and regions into the pluralistic-unitary heritage of the freshly conceived, millennia-old Chinese Nation. 摘要 在中国大陆，电视与广播电台、报刊杂志、人文社科研 究机构多为国有，互联网、录音与出版公司受到监管，公开场合中的 音乐会或为政府主办、或为政府允许。一个新的文化现象的出现、一 个风格的崛起或衰落、或者一个音乐家的成功总是或多或少的与国家 的中央管控有关。本文对中国民间音乐在二十一世纪中的新发展进行 探析，并着眼于这个管控是如何对各民族、各地区的音乐传统进行塑 形，并使它们成为一个多元一体的中华民族文化遗产的组成部分的。