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21, Ignatyevskoe Hwy, Blagoveshchensk, 675027, Russian Federation
Researcher, Center for the Study of Far Eastern Emigration, Amur State University
This article provides an overview of the folklore of Chinese gold mining artels that developed on the territory of Manchuria in the conditions of the Far Eastern frontier. As a result of the powerful migration process of the mid–nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which went down in history as the “Breakthrough to Guangdong,” various trading groups began to arise and develop in northeastern China, whose composition was determined by Han settlers. Their spiritual practices and folklore combined the common Chinese religious tradition, religious customs of their native regions, and the ritual and mythological complex of the inhabitants of the Far Eastern frontier. As in other specialized artels (e.g., forest workers, water workers), in the folklore of the “mountain workers” (gold miners), the polyethnic mythology of the Far Eastern frontier merged with the folk religion of the Han population of central China (for example, the law of “twinning” with the Law of the Taiga; faith in local gods — with the ideas of the Lao Batou artel). Based on the commercial practices of gold mining and a specific system of religious traditions and rituals, Chinese artisans created a comprehensive system of folklore genres that enriched their culture and reflected a special means of self-awareness.
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