WESTERN HAN -- A Yangzhou Storyteller's Script A Documented Study of the Oral and the Written in the Tradition of Chinese Storytelling

Projektsammendrag Summary of the Project WESTERN HAN -- A Yangzhou Storyteller's Script The aim of the project is to document and investigate one of the now lost oral traditions of Chinese storytelling, WESTERN HAN. The planned book will contain a storyteller's script from Yangzhou, roughly dated to the late Qing, ca. 1880-1910, both in facsimile of its original handwritten form, in a computerized version, and in an English translation. It is not only the first traditional script from Yangzhou storytelling (Yangzhou pinghua) published in its full extent (the original has 367 pages), but it is the first genuine script of Chinese professional storytelling (shuoshu) that has ever been published in original and complete form. The publication of the script is of high importance not only with a view to preserve knowledge about one of the famous oral traditions of China, but also as a unique documentation of the interplay between orality and literacy in Chinese storytelling. The book fills a gap in the English literature of Chinese semi-historical romances. None of the 'Western Han' narratives has ever been translated into English. This storyteller's version is unique and entertaining. The work is an ideal classroom book for students studying Chinese history, literature, oral literature, storytelling, etc.