Resumen de States of the folklore profession in China and the United States: : a trialogue
Kang Baocheng, Robert Baron, Wang Dun
China and the US possess two of the most vibrant folklore professions in the world, at a time when the field of folklore has substantially declined in many countries. The series of exchanges between folklorists in China and the US initiated in 2008 has revealed great mutual interest among participants in how folklore is studied, conceptualized, and publicly practiced in each of the countries. As people participated in these exchanges, they realized that there is much that they do not know about the fundamental characteristics of the folklore discipline in each country and its relationship to the public sector. The preservation and utilization of traditional culture should always be situated within the context of the contemporary. In this regard, contemporary China, which has undergone remarkably rapid and accelerating modern cultural transformations, needs two sets of mirrors to examine its transformative trajectory.
