文字／電子時代的口傳技藝：一個苗栗客家山歌婚宴表演場域的觀察

This study, drawing on the media cultural theories of Havelock, Goody and Ong, aims to explore the changes and adaptation resulting from the conjunction of media cultural notions and artistic creation. I will focus on investigating how the literate/electronic culture affected the improvisational oral performance arts. The folkloric occasion of wedding banquets with Hakka folksong performance will be my starting point of this study.The research results indicate that electronic product (Karaoke) had replaced traditional musical instruments (such as the erhu fiddle) to be the more common musical accompaniment in the wedding banquet circumstances. The folksong singer's performance sequence largely follows the schedule planned by the host, leaving the verbal artists very little freedom to improvise. While in the past, an onlooker could pitch in and participate in the improvisational process, with the stage situated at a distance from the audience, there is now rarely any such mutual communication. In addition, a voice recorder with play-back button enables folksong singers to refine their singing skills through repeated listening and practicing. The traditional master-disciple mechanism that passed on the expertise of their trade no longer dominates the singers' ways of learning.