Yun Hee Hong

‘Jade Road’ is a term that was presented as an alternative to 'Silk Road' to overcome its limits. However, this terminology which started to make frequent appearance in the world of Chinese mythology in the recent years is used in the context of Chinese mythology as part of project dedicated to the exploration into the origin of Chinese civilization, rather than in the context of Silk Road studies. In particular, Jade vessels and the tombs of goddesses which were excavated in massive amount in L

Nowadays, myth is being used as a kind of cultural resource. Myth has been the source of inspiration for creating literature and art in the past as well, but with globalization and rapidly-changing media environment, the modes of myth resourcization have become more complex and diversified in the 21st century. This paper introduces the concepts that emerged in the mythological circles of Korea and China under these circumstances such as the "return of myth," "neo-mythologism," and "mythologism",

In its pursuit of present-facing mythology, recent scholarship on Chinese mythology is displaying an inclination to concentrate on the discussion of the transformation of myth resources. Yet, it is in fact from the early 21st century that the concept of “myth resources” appeared and began to be actively discussed. This was around the time Chinese government turned its eyes towards the traditional culture and intangible cultural heritage as the resources for developing cultural industry. New ligh

Dragons in Chinese myths are depicted as the animal that lives in waters such as river, sea or lake. In agricultural society, dragons were recognized as the rain deity; and to seamen, they were perceived as the being that determined the smooth sailing. In other words, they possessed the attributes of the water deity. Also, water not only makes life possible on earth, but takes it away when in dearth such as the drought, or in excess such as the flood or hail. Deep water possesses the images of b

Within the long history of humanity, use of letters in human societies is a relatively recent event. Humans have lived in the age of oral culture for a much longer period. Seen in this light, it is likely that the myth emerged in an oral form when it was first born as the “primal narrative.” Hence, understanding of orality is crucial to the mythological studies, in this sense. However, it has not been too long that the orality has been viewed as the viable topic for mythology. The mainstream of

In the last two to three decades, Chinese folkloristics has seen some remarkable development. The development can be confirmed not only in the scale of academic accomplishment, but also in the richness of its contents and the depth of theoretical discussions. One of the theories and methodologies that had a great impact on such development is the performance theory. Performance theory which arose between the late 1960s and the 1970s in the US had a tremendous influence in the academia from the 1

Mermaids or mermen can be understood as the mythical or legendary creatures that exist between two worlds, in other words, the “inter-beings” of human and fish, or of earth and sea. Imagination surrounding these creatures on the borders inevitably entails multiplicity and cannot be fixed by one form. Yet, ever since Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid became a popular fairytale around the world, the image of mermaid with the upper body of a beautiful female and the tail of a fish has be

Zhong Jingwen was one of the scholars in Chinese Folkloristics who had an acute sense for academic disciplines, and whose accomplishment arguably made the biggest contribution to the Folklorisitics becoming an established discipline in China. This paper examines the three periods of his Folkloristic studies in which he made clear accomplishments and showed signs of change, and how he defined the category and characteristics of folk during these periods. First period is the decade extending from

This paper aims to examine recent discussions surrounding the orality of The Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and discuss the necessity of approaching the question of orality and literation of The Classic of Poetry from the performance aspect. Using the myth about conception from correspodence, this paper then inquires into the literation of mythology in The Classic of Poetry from the aspect of performance by focusing on the musical nature of the text. In doing so, I investigated that the orality of

This paper takes note of the phenomenon, in which concepts such as “neo-mythologism” or “mythologism” are catching on in recent Chinese mythological field. It could be understood that for about a decade since 2004, the concept neo-mythologism presented by mythologists Ye Shuxian and others was a trend, which has then made way for that of mythologism proposed by Yang Lihui since 2014. These two concepts appeared in existing literary criticisms, but the former was used to indicate the signs of the