A River County and a Story of Filial Care

Hanchuan is a county-level city administered by Xiaogan, in the Han River plain. Rivers, fields and settlements give it a different setting from the mountains of northern Hubei. Its place name directs attention to the Han, which continues downstream towards Wuhan. Water is a real geographical thread here, rather than a reason to treat every nearby city as the same community.

The familiar tale of Dong Yong tells of a man who sells his labour to pay for his father’s burial and a woman who helps him by weaving. Later versions identify her with a celestial maiden. The story circulates in several places and forms; Xiaogan’s association with filial devotion does not establish Hanchuan as the uniquely proven setting of every episode.

Hanchuan has its own traditions of storytelling and shadow puppetry within the wider cultural landscape of Xiaogan. Performance gives remembered characters voices, gestures and changing audiences. The river plain supplies another setting of daily work and exchange around these stories. Hanchuan’s character emerges through the meeting of that particular landscape with traditions that people continue to tell and perform.