Collection and Publication of Oirat Folk Tales of Xinjiang: a Brief Historical Review

Abstract

The paper provides a systematic introduction and a brief history of collection, compilation and publication of Oirat folk tales in Xinjiang. The process of scholarly collection and publication of the oral lore of Xinjiang Oirats initiated by such western researchers as G. J. Ramstedt and H. Haslund, was later contributed to by Kalmyk scientists Ts.-D. Nominkhanov and B. Todaeva around the mid-20th century, being basically finalized due to the vast support of such activities on behalf of the governmental bodies and academic societies of China from the late 1970s throughout the rest of the century. Since the 1980s, there has even been an academic plan conducted by the Society of Folk Artists affiliated to the Xinjiang Association of Writers and Artists - as a minor part of the Ninth 5-Year-Plan of China - to publish collections of folk tales, folk songs and proverbs respectively. So, the task has been meticulously dealt with ever since resulting in around one hundred collections and books of folk tales have been published in Xinjiang - in Clear script, traditional Mongolian script, or Latin transcription - with due regard of ethnic, historical and linguistic peculiarities of the recorded materials.