历史的“身份”“变迁”“场景”——《朝鲜族舞蹈史》撰写的回顾与思考

Historical “Identity,” “Change,” and “Scene”:Retrospection and Ref?lection on Writing of The Dance History of Korean Ethnic Group

本文通过回顾1997年出版的《朝鲜族舞蹈史》的写作过程、思考其存在的问题,结合近些年来笔者在研究舞蹈历史与理论的过程中强调的舞蹈"身份""变迁""场景"等概念,阐释笔者对书写舞蹈史的新理解,以及对未来书写舞蹈史的思路与展望,以期对后学与同行研究和书写舞蹈史有所参考。

Published in 1997, The Dance History of Korean Ethnic Group is the author’s f?irst independent book. The publication of this research f?inding is a result incented by the mentors. Also, it intends to meet the needs of social changes, the development of higher education, and the discipline construction of dance. Re-examining the book, reviewing the writing process, and ref?lecting over its problems after 20 years, this paper emphasizes the concepts such as 'identity,' 'change,' and 'scene,' elucidates the author’s new understanding of writing dance history, and provides views and outlooks for future dance historiography. Based on his research experience on dance history and theory for the past few years, the author hopes this paper will give some reference to the study and writing on dance history of young scholars and peers.During the writing of The Dance History of Korean Ethnic Group, the f?irst questions encountered were 'what to write' and 'how to write.' 'What to write,' in other words, is who 'I' am and where 'I' am from. Evidently, the Chinese Korean ethic group was from the Korean Peninsula. In terms of natural blood and historical culture, the Chinese Korean ethnic group, the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(North Koreans), and the people of the Republic of Korea(South Koreans) have the same root and origin. Therefore, the history of Chinese Korean dance cannot be tracked down without referring to the history of the Korean peninsula, which is also the historical conf?irmation of who 'I' used to be and where 'I' came from. Yet, it needs to be reconf?irmed that who 'I' am now and where the current 'me' is from. The reason is that the Chinese Korean is the identity for the Koreans who had immigrated to China and chose to join the Chinese nationality in 1949. The current 'me' is a Chinese citizen and belongs to one of Chinese ethnicities. In fact, the 'Korean ethnic group' is a specif?ic concept that combines the citizen and ethnic identities. Therefore, the current 'me' is the ethnic Korean, and its history has moved into a new era with the transition of the identity. At the beginning of the writing, the author conf?irmed the past and present 'me' and determined to record both the past of the Korean Peninsula and the history after establishing the identity of the ethnic Koreans in The Dance History of Korean Ethnic Group.The next is about 'how to write.' The writing philosophy of The Dance History of Korean Ethnic Group is to 'present the hows and also the whys.' In other words, it is not only to describe the dance scenes in different historical periods but also to do the 'thick description' of the reasons of forming those dance scenes. 'Hows' is the sketch and 'whys' is the thick description;the former is the prerequisite of the latter.The author believes that writing history is writing the process of the 'extension' of the history. There are two core concepts in the 'extension' : continuity and change. And 'change' is of paramount importance in writing history.No matter it is studying dance history or dance culture, the author tends to use 'change' to refer to the process of historical changes so as to give 'change' more meanings, such as 'variation,' 'evolution,' 'richness,' and 'development.' The signif?icance of 'variation' and 'evolution' is different from that of 'richness' and 'development.' 'Variation' and 'evolution' highlight the changes of the original dance forms and states in terms of connotation, form, nature, and function. 'Richness' and 'development' refer to not only the changes of the original dance forms and states but also the derivative dance forms and states or styles.From what aspects shall the changes of dance be analyzed? The author believes that the changing scenes of dance in different periods can be described from the following aspects— 'rise and fall,' 'aesthetics,' 'space,' 'dance styles,' 'forms,' 'function,' and 'attribute.' Dance changes for multiple reasons, and there are different reasons behind each changing phenomenon. Yet the most important reasons for the changes of dance can be summarized into the following aspects: 'ecological change,' 'subjective adjustment,' 'cultural impact,' and 'driven by innovations.'The author has explained the concept of 'scene' in his previous papers. The 'scene' is a concept compounded by two concepts— 'place' and 'view.' 'Place' normally refers to space, which also related to timeliness. 'View' normally refers to the views at the places;in fact, views are the situations of people doing things at places. 'Scene' is that certain people are doing certain things in certain space.Comparatively speaking, the scenes associated with dance can be divided into two categories. One is 'the scene of thing and dance,' which refers to the scene formed by doing things related to dance, or in other words, the scene of doing dance things. Another one is 'the scene in dance,' which refers to the scene formed by things occurring in dance, or in other words, the scene of doing things in dance. Moreover, since there are both similarity and difference among the specif?ic things that have been done, the concept of the 'genus' of doing things and then the concept of the 'genus' of scenes have appeared. For example, there are 'genera' of scenes in dance f?ield, such as 'dance protection,' 'dance communication,' 'dance creation,' 'dance teaching,' 'dance performing,' and 'dance research.' A 'genus' of scene is the induction and abstraction of the specif?ic scenes. Therefore, while there is a 'genus' of people doing a 'genus' of things by using a 'genus' of bodies in a 'genus' of scenes, there is a 'genus' of contexts and norms. In sum, when we study dance history, we should not only study 'the scenes of things and dance' but also analyze 'the scenes in dance.' We should not only do case studies of the scenes, but also analyze the 'genera' of scenes;we should analyze not only the 'genera' of bodies, but also the 'genera' of contexts and norms.In short, the dance history expected and understood by the author is a scroll depicting the changes of the magnif?icent dance history, which records that a certain people are doing a certain things associated with dance against a certain historical background, a certain cultural and dance contexts, and in a certain space, presenting the fresh and lively dance scenes with cultural connotations. This is the author’s outlook on writing the Chinese dance history and the dance histories of the Chinese ethic groups.