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About Timothy Thurston
I am lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, researching language, folklore, and society in Northwest China. I am particularly interested in oral cultures of Northwest China, broadly construed to include oral traditions, contemporary hip-hop, and everything in between. In 2015, I completed my dissertation on language, modernity, and Tibetan comedy in Amdo and I am currently writing a manuscript entitled Satirical Tibet: Media, Voice, and Ideology in a Modernizing Amdo. I am also PI of the Tibetan Sustainable Heritage Initiative (TaSHI), which aims to develop new pathways for supporting the vitality and viability of threatened traditional practices and knowledge systems in Tibetan communities within the People's Republic of China.NBN Episodes hosted by Timothy:
March 22, 2023
Oral Traditions in Contemporary China
Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation (Lexington Books, 2022) is the newest monograph from Professor Juwen Zhang of Willamette Colle…
March 25, 2022
Contemporary Korean Shamanism
Once viewed as an embarrassing superstition, the theatrical religious performances of Korean shamans--who communicate with the dead, divine the future…
February 22, 2022
Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork
With The Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork (Indiana University Press, 2019), Lisa Gilman and John Fenn offer a comprehensive review …
January 18, 2022
Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China
In Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning (Indiana UP, 2020), Ziying You explores the role of…
December 29, 2021
The Nuosu Book of Origins
The Nuosu people, who were once overlords of vast tracts of farmland and forest in the uplands of southern Sichuan and neighboring provinces, are the …
February 27, 2020
Chinese Folklore Studies Today
The discipline of folkloristics in the People’s Republic of China is robust and well-funded. With thousands of scholars across the country, it is surp…
February 10, 2020
The Battle for Fortune
Rebgong, in the Northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau (China’s Qinghai Province), is in the midst of a ‘Battle for Fortune.’ That is, a battle to b…
December 17, 2019
The Kiss of Death
Disease is a social issue and not just a medical one. This is the central tenet underlying The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore (…
June 18, 2019
Revolutionary Bodies
What is “Chinese dance,” how did it take shape in during China’s socialist period, and how has this socialist form continued to influence Post-Mao exp…
June 12, 2019
The Handsome Monk and Other Stories
A series of stories ranging from two-page narrative excerpts to 90+ page novellas, The Handsome Monk and Other Stories (Columbia University Press, 201…
April 2, 2019
Song King
How does music link people across time and space? How do singers modulate their repertoires to forge links with audiences both within and across local…
February 19, 2019
Enticement
Though most renowned for his award-winning Tibetan films, Pema Tseden, is also a prolific author and translator. Enticement: Stories of Tibet (State U…
January 22, 2019
Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan
George Mason University professor Ben Gatling’s debut book, Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018), is a beau…
October 2, 2018
Rebuilding an Enlightened World
Bill Ivey’s Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America (Indiana University Press, 2018) advances the idea that we are entering a post-enlig…
May 25, 2018
Chinese Heritage in the Making
In Chinese Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations, and Contestations (Amsterdam University Press, 2018), edited by Christina Maags and Mari…
May 21, 2018
Songs for Dead Parents
The Lòlop’ò of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province have a folktale in which they, Han Chinese, and Tibetans were given the technology of writing. The Ha…
March 22, 2018
Humble Theory
Humble Theory: Folklore's Grasp on Social Life (Indiana University Press, 2016) is an anthology of essays from Dorothy Noyes, professor of English and…
February 19, 2018
Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures
Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2016), a multi-authored volume co-edited by Catherine Gran…
January 17, 2018
Packy Jim
How do individuals on national or societal peripheries make use of tradition and to what ends? How can narratives discursively construct a complex wor…
November 20, 2017
A Vulgar Art
In A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-Up Comedy (The University Press of Mississippi, 2014), Ian Brodie, an associate professor of folklore at Cape…