Tan Zhenshan's Folktales

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Tan Zhenshan's Folktales

Applicant: Xinmin City, Liaoning Province

Item No.: 20

Project No.: I-20

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Liaoning Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Xinmin City, Liaoning Province

Protection unit: Xinmin Cultural Center

Introduction to tan Zhenshan's Folktales

Applicant: Xinmin City, Liaoning Province

Tan Zhenshan, male, a famous folktale narrator, was born in Taipingzhuang village, Luojiafang Township, Xinmin City, Liaoning Province on November 10, 1925. Tan Zhenshan's home is in the northeast of Faku County, Xinchengzi District of Shenyang City and Xinmin City. It is an immigrant village in Xianfeng Period of Qing Dynasty. The residents come from Shandong, Henan and Hebei. Tan Zhenshan can tell 600 folktales, most of which are legends of scenery, ghosts and foxes, legends of historical figures, life stories and jokes. These stories are basically passed on by families, relatives and friends. Tan Zhenshan has lived and worked in the black land where he was raised for 80 years. He has been telling stories in the fields, on the Kang, at the street and in front of the door for more than 20 years.

Tan Zhenshan was first discovered in the integrated investigation of folk literature in the late 1980s, and the folk literature workers collected the folk stories he told. In 1988, the selected stories of Tan Zhenshan, CO edited by Shenyang City and Xinmin County, was published, which selected 53 folk stories told by Tan Zhenshan.

Tan Zhenshan's story has attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad. In 1992, at the invitation of the mayor of Yuanye city of Japan, Tan Zhenshan went to Japan to attend the "World Folk Art Fair" and told Chinese folk stories to the scholars from Japan, India, South Korea, Italy and Germany. Chen Yiyuan, a professor at Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, and his students visited Tan Zhenshan's home twice to collect data. Tan Zhenshan is the first folklorist to give lectures in University.

Tan Zhenshan is a representative of Liaohe oral literature. Since 1989, he has been employed as an outside school counselor of primary and secondary schools in Luojiafang township of Xinmin City, and in 1989, he was named "excellent folk story writer" by Liaoning Province. Now he is a member of Liaoning folk artists association.

Tan Zhenshan is 80 years old. Although his oral literature has been partly recorded, it is not enough to reflect his whole picture. At present, although there are a small number of inheritors in Tan Zhenshan's folktales, they can only tell a part of them. If we do not record and rescue the stories in Tan Zhenshan's memory as soon as possible, it will be a regret for generations.