Who Represents Folk? Disseminating Positive Energy in Contemporary China

Throughout modern Chinese history, the idea of folk culture was typically associated with rural feudal superstitions. It had been appropriated by the state and intellectuals for varies ideological purposes, for instance, to reform the nation during the New Culture/May Fourth Movement, to mobilize the masses to fight against the Japanese invasion, and to construct socialist China under the Maoist regime. However, since the reform era, folk culture has been used as soft power to reproduce a people-oriented state and a Chinese nation rooted in folk culture. It is articulated as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) that represents the contemporary value of Chineseness in the new millennium. This paper looks into the politics of heritagizing folk culture, using the largest folk art fair in rural China as a case study. More specifically, it examines how the folk performing artists, who are supposed to be the primary agents of the folk custom, are largely sidelined by local media companies. In contrast, professional-official artists and academic researchers are conveniently spotlighted to help the folk art fair win acclaim and dissimilate positive energy (zhengnengliang) as main advocates for heritage conservation. I argue that the value of a folk art fair is extraneous to the folk communities. Even though folk culture is discursively framed as national cultural heritage, the positive energy of Chineseness is predominantly constructed through the officials and academics’ re-visiting of folk culture as the essence of Chinese civilization.