Our new Chinoperl website is now at:
http://chinoperl.osu.edu
WELCOME TO CHINOPERL!
The Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (CHINOPERL) is devoted to the research, analysis and interpretation of oral and performing traditions, broadly defined, and their relationship to China's culture and society. The organization's membership consists of scholars in the humanities and the social sciences who recognize the significance of oral performance to Chinese literature.
CHINOPERL was founded in 1969 by a group of eminent scholars (Yuen Ren Chao (趙元任, 1892-1982), Harold Shadick (1915-1992), Cyril Birch (1925- ), and others) who recognized the significance and uniqueness of oral performance to Chinese Literature. The purpose of the association is to encourage the recording, study, and practice of traditional forms of Chinese literature that are primarily oral, such as storytelling, opera, ceremonial chanting, folksongs, etc., as well as those that have traditionally been enhanced by singing and intoning. Since 1982, various modern genres, such as spoken drama, new musical plays, cinema, television plays, rhymes or patter, and the interplay between oral and written texts, have been added to the scope of scholarly research and publication by CHINOPERL.
Among the founders, the noted linguist, Y.R. Chao, coined the acronym, CHINOPERL, from CHINese Oral and PERforming Literature. The First CHINOPERL conference was held on 31 March and 1 April 1969 at Cornell University, attended by twenty scholars in all, becoming CHINOPERL's founding members. CHINOPERL is incorporated in the United States and has an international membership. CHINOPERL publishes a journal — CHINOPERL Papers (also see back issues) — and holds a conference each year to present papers and exchange ideas in conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies.
(The Chinoperl website here, under ChinaLinks, will be removed soon.)