This Thursday, the Multicultural Resource Commons and Asian American Alliance collaborated to hold an oral storytelling event in ObieXing at Price House. College fourth-year Loren Carter opened the event with a speech on storytelling, followed by two musical pieces played by College second-year Jenny Wei. Afterward, attendees mingled over plates of Indian food.
This event was part of a series of activities organized for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Although AAPI Heritage Month is in May, AAA started events this past week as the academic year ends before the month is over. College second-year Sam Pinedo organized the event so that it would be open to all members of the Oberlin campus community.
“I wanted to do something that [would give people the opportunity] to share their culture,” Pinedo said. “I worked with AAA to plan an oral storytelling event where people who don’t know that much could learn about it. It has been super healing to promote events for Asian students.”
Carter prefaced Wei’s performance by explaining the importance of oral storytelling as an intangible artifact of history.
“Oral stories are so old,” Carter said. “You can’t really pinpoint when they started because we can only assume they started before written language. The history of mankind is tracked alongside stories. You can see it as we become more distinguished in the world — stories shifted to reflect the morals we wanted to produce as Westerners.”
Oral storytelling is an art form vital to preserving the heritage of vulnerable communities. Carter speaks to this importance especially in the museum industry.
“The museum industry oftentimes overlooks disenfranchised communities,” Carter said. “That’s when family connection becomes really important, especially [in the form of telling] stories, even if they’re not crazy folk tales that are passed down from generation to generation.”
Storytelling comes in many different forms, as seen in Wei’s performance on the guzheng, a traditional Chinese plucked zither. Wei explained how traditional music can tell a story, describing a piece called “Tall Mountain Spewing water.” The song evokes the feeling of encountering large mountains in China and strolling alongside a river.
“On the instrument, you’re doing this motion to make this sound that sounds a lot like flowing water,” Wei said. “It’s the story of mountains and rivers.”
Storytelling is not only a relic of the past. Wei’s first piece, “Nu Er Qing,” which translates to “Maiden’s Love,” demonstrated modernity.
“It’s a part of a show called Journey to the West, which a lot of Chinese people grew up watching,” she said. “It’s about finding a match for a daughter. It’s modern, less focused on storytelling and more on being enjoyable.”
Wei also reflected on her personal engagement with storytelling.
“I come from a background of qigong, a traditional Chinese practice of healing,” she said. “The stories I have growing up are centered around my dad being a practitioner of qigong and how that has affected me. A lot of people don’t understand what I’m saying because it’s such a vague concept.”
She then explained that though she chooses to keep many of her stories private, music serves as an alternative outlet to express herself.
“I play and practice every day not because of any of the performances that I am scheduled for, but mostly for myself and for an unfiltered connection with music and my instrument,” Wei said. “It’s a reflection of my soul or what I’m feeling.”
Pinedo commented on Wei’s performance, noting that she had never heard a live guzheng performance before.
“Jenny did amazing,” she said. “She showcased a wide variety of what kind of sounds instruments can make. You could see the full range of this instrument that I think many people in the room, including me, have never heard of before.”
Carter expressed a desire for more people to attend events hosted by the MRC as well as for more oral storytelling events to be held in the future. Whether storytelling takes the form of a mesmerizing musical performance or a chat with friends at Stevenson Dining Hall, it’s an essential part of community building.
“When you’re working with disenfranchised communities, it is so tricky because you want to keep the space small so it’s safe, but at the same time, having more people gives a higher chance of people talking,” Carter said. “The MRC has a lot of great events that people don’t go to because if you’re not in the know, people don’t go.”
Pinedo remarked that storytelling pervades our lives, whether we notice it or not.
“Students are always telling you their stories,” Pinedo said. “We’re always listening to each other’s stories.”
