Storytelling is always critical in the evolution of human culture and social structure. Prasetyo (nostalgic2017) stated that storytelling is sharing knowledge and experience through narratives and anecdotes to convey lessons, ideas, concepts, and cause-and-effect relationships. Within Johannesburg, South Africa, a unique element is the art-based storytelling most common among small groups of women (Walker & Oliveira, 2020). In Hong Kong, the youths celebrate quotidian stories to celebrate the city’s nostalgic and emotional aspects. The youth in Hong Kong use street protests and occupations to assert their rights, and storytelling is an important factor in dispelling government narratives (Lam-Knott, 2021). An emerging trend across different cultures is digital storytelling, which is a storytelling practice that is interwoven with digital media and involves the use of sound, texts, and other elements. The form of storytelling has undergone radical changes, from cave murals to video games. It has always played a key role in building communities such as religions, organisations, groups, and communities (Harari, 2018). This thesis critically discusses the constructs and trends of storytelling and how it perpetuates and reforms communities using diverse ethnographic case studies. Storytelling is an important characteristic of different cultures since it shapes group identities, transmits cultures, and mediates conflicts despite increased challenges, including technological advances, cultural homogenisation, and generational ruptures. The modern challenges that storytelling faces in constructing communities, such as technological advances, cultural homogenisation and generational ruptures
Construction of Community Identity and Group Recognition
Storytelling is an effective form of communication for various scenarios, particularly in the context of community creation/. It is unrivalled in building community identity and stimulating group participation (Bayer & Hettinger, 2019). In Johannesburg, South Africa, the Mwangaza Mama is a group that creates intellectual and practical space for women to speak for themselves from different standpoints (Walker & Oliveira, 2020). This identity was created by seven women who met to share stories of love, loss, and hardships with a desire for self-representation that extended beyond the stereotypes of vulnerability maintained by others. However, stories are also driven by the transformation within the community since Mwangaza Mama was an outcome of migration. The society’s depiction of migrant women as inexperienced and culturally childlike necessitated the need for a space to share their experiences.
Storytelling also helps to bring together original communities through a reflection on the social structure and people’s spiritual beliefs. For instance, in the New Zealand region, Māori constructed the original shared values of Aboriginal people through storytelling. Their tradition of storytelling ranges from creation myths to historical legends to inspire individual identity and community and to help create and bring together original communities. Thus, it helped to create and bring together the original communities (Maori Language, 2023). A good example is, According to myths, Tāne, the god of the forest, creates the first woman, Hine, from the earth to demonstrate the harmonious relationship between Maori and nature. Reflecting onMāori social structure and people’s spiritual beliefs promotes community members’ identification with these shared histories, values, and social norms (Jackson, 2002). Māori are smarter, more environmentally friendly, and more concerned about their family life than Caucasian people in venerable Aboriginal cultures. Māori people are more concerned about their community than themselves and more concerned about the community than themselves (Maori Language, 2023). Through objective storytelling, people can identify with their inherent beliefs on different subjects to reunite with their own.
The traditional oral storytelling, such as the Māori heroes of the Māui catching giant fish(Grace, 2020), helps to support and nurture collective identity. The ethnic people’s sense of heroic identity is awakened in stories proclaiming courage, wisdom, and community contribution. Stories can portray and communicate shared values and beliefs, creating deep connections and empathy between community members (Bruner, 1991). Arguably, storytelling has made Māori symbols of bravery for generations, transforming the nature-given sources of the hunt into collectively viable forms of life, experience, and meaning. In addition, tattoos, dances and other means of evolving the narrative of storytelling are equally conducive to reinforcing a sense of identity and community among members of Māori communities. For example, the matai tattoo represents loyalty to ancestors, and the shark tattoo represents the strength of a warrior in the face of adversity(Symbolic Nature, 2022). The stories promote interaction and internal cohesion within the community by shaping shared cultural heroes and collective memories.
Continuity by transmitting community culture and promoting intergenerational communication
Storytelling is irreplaceable in preserving a community’s cultural heritage and traditions to convey and reshape community memory. In ethnography, Boyd’s (2009) study demonstrates that storytelling serves as a mechanism to pass on knowledge and social norms to facilitate intergenerational communication and understanding within a community.
The Guozijian neighbourhood in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, China, is one of the oldest streets in the city, with a long history and cultural heritage of 730 years (Yunfei, 2023). elders represent the roots of the storytelling process as they model how and why to tell stories. Most significant methods include cyclical storytelling and generative metaphors and symbols to give stories the power to travel through time and space. Storytelling helps the community members learn from their experiences and expand their understanding of their neighbourhood’s culture, community, land, and historical sites. It helps to establish the “ancestral and contemporary connections to place” (Corntassel, Chaw-win & T’lakwadzi, 2009). The older residents of East End continue to cultivate a sense of norms, memories, ideas and emotions on the history of the community through oral storytelling, archives, cultural celebration presentations, and wall paintings. On the streets of the Guozijian, there remain the ruins of the building of the Guozijian, which used to be the highest official academic institution of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties in ancient China (Yufei, 2023). The highest official institution of learning in ancient China during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties is deeply rooted in the educational norms and habits of the people of Dongcheng District. It makes students from this area some of the most diligent students in the country. Students of the Guozijian (国子监) who were successful in the imperial examinations and became “top students” could have their names inscribed in the Confucian temple, be promoted by the imperial court, have a smooth career, and even increase the prestige of their families. In the Ming Dynasty, a student named Peng Shih refused to celebrate with a merchant’s banquet after passing the preliminary examination and insisted on going home to study and prepare for the next examination, finally winning the first prize (Zhang, 1974). Stories such as these were passed down from local people to educate future generations to be diligent in their studies. Today, the people of Beijing Dongcheng District, and indeed all of China, hold learning and duty in the highest regard.
According to Beijing Dongcheng Official (2023), in 2023, Beijing Dongcheng District held the 9th Beijing Confucius Temple Guozijian Guoxue Cultural Festival, which featured lectures on Guoxue, children’s tea ceremony performances, and poetry recitations to vividly tell stories of traditional Chinese culture, as well as bring the stories into the present day to serve as advice to the future generations. Archibald (2008) has argued that powerful reconnections occur in relationships when young people can access memories through elders and knowledge-keepers familiar with the community’s history and land. The Dongcheng District of Beijing uses the Guozijian neighbourhood as a cultural home for storytelling, where a shared, intergenerational cultural bond is enjoyed by young people, adults, the elderly, and the wider community through rich, vibrant storytelling. Storytelling allows a group to gain ownership and control over their history. When a young person in the Guozijian neighbourhood listens to storytelling, he enhances his interaction and intimate emotional exchange with his intellectual elders and becomes more absorbed in the spiritual core of the land, re-establishing a connection to the past stories also creating memories, forming extensive networks, and are passed on from generation to generation. The audience links the story content to their own lives (Downs, 2014). The young people in the Dongcheng District adopt the spirit of hard work and resistance to temptation in their own lives. They continue to write the cultural story of the Guozijian neighbourhood.
Storytelling for community adaptation and change
Storytelling helps members build empathy, embrace diversity, and find common ground in a civic community. Rappaport (1995), in his study on the power of narrative, mentions that storytelling can inspire community action and change because of its ability to shape the way community members think and feel about the world and the way they interact in it, encouraging the interpretation of their shared history and present situation.
After the end of apartheid, South Africa’s establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1995 marked an attempt to promote community reconstruction and change through storytelling. The TRC allowed victims and perpetrators to share their apartheid-era stories through public hearings (Mussi, 2020), which was a metaphorical, non-threatening relational approach to mediation. This process facilitates confrontation and understanding of past pain among community members and helps the community move towards long-term peace and understanding. As a powerful community-building tool, storytelling has demonstrated its important role in connecting individual experiences with social movements, galvanising social support, and driving policy change. (Davis, 2011.) As a gentle community solution, storytelling plays a key role in community members’ sense of belonging, identity, and connection to the land, contributing to their ongoing healing process and community change.
Challenges technology, cultural homogenisation, and generational breakdowns
In modern society, technological advances, cultural convergence, and generational differences influence the role of storytelling in community building. These challenges present both problems and new opportunities for storytelling.
With the development of digital technology and social media, storytelling dynamics have changed. The AI-generated stories and voice-over videos on YouTube demonstrate the use of new technologies in storytelling. Despite the benefits, these technologies lack stories that reach the heart and depth based on shared experiences. While the short stories on social media broaden audiences, their depth and authenticity are often questioned. Offline story-sharing and face-to-face communication help to enhance social intimacy and create new narrative forms by blending old and new mediums.
In addition, cultural homogenisation caused by globalisation poses a challenge to local culture and storytelling, which may lead to the marginalisation of traditional storytelling and affect the cultural diversity of communities. To address this challenge, it is important to strengthen education on local culture and storytelling, which helps the younger generation understand and value their cultural heritage and is an effective way to combat cultural homogenisation.
Finally, the accelerated pace of modern life and intergenerational communication barriers may cause the younger generation to neglect traditional storytelling, leading to the loss of cultural knowledge and the weakening of community identity. Organising intergenerational storytelling activities can promote communication and understanding between different age groups and strengthen the ties between community members. Conclusion
Storytelling contributes to community construction, maintenance, and change. It is a major social tool to construct community identity, enhance a sense of belonging, and promote cultural transmission, whether in traditional indigenous communities, historical and cultural communities, or modern disaster reconstruction communities. Storytelling promotes the emotional connections between community members and provides a shared cultural and historical context for the community. It deepens the community cohesion and continuity. Storytelling faces many challenges the modernisation process poses, but it is still a powerful tool to build and maintain communities through proactive strategies and efforts. Emerging contexts such as storytelling in virtual communities, and new methodologies to narrate stories are opportunities to sustain.
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