Cultural globalization has attracted a great deal of attention, as the world has witnessed the prodigious expansion of Western cultural forms and styles. Traditional, ethnic, and folk cultures in China and Japan have been under increasing pressure for survival in societies dominated by Western popular consumer culture. Examining the responses of the traditional folk cultures of these two countries to globalization reveals the tension or dynamic of ongoing global/local encounters.; This comparative study analyzes the transformation of folk arts in China and Japan within the context of cultural globalization. It demonstrates that traditional and local folk-art forms, such as Chinese Kunqu opera and Pingtan storytelling and Japanese Kabuki theater, having already endured the encroachment of Western cultures during the process of modernization, are faced now with new dilemmas and challenges as well as with opportunities for survival and rejuvenation.; The study examines critically the ways in which these three traditional folk arts have responded to cultural globalization. An examination of Chinese Kunqu opera's responses, mainly by analyzing a group meeting at the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and an interview with two directors of the Jiangsu Suju and Kunqu Troupe, and by reviewing Cheng Shizheng's production of Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion, shows that Kunqu professionals and scholars are attempting to revitalize their art while maintaining a balance between tradition and innovation. For Suzhou Pingtan storytelling, interviews with the Suzhou Pingtan School's headmaster and the leader of the Yangzhou Quyi Troupe, along with comments from two Pingtan scholars at the group meeting and a textual reading and cultural analysis of the Pingtan program at the Suzhou Guangyu storyhouse, show that this folk art of storytelling is seeking opportunities for commercialization and adopting postmodern techniques. An analysis of Kabuki theater's responses to globalization, based upon the Super Kabuki created by Ichikawa Ennosuke III and the practices of Kabuki operators or proprietors and the Japanese government, shows that the transformation of Kabuki theater is consistent with Japan's ideology of constituting itself as a cultural nation-state.; These various responses from artists, scholars, performers, members of professional training schools, operators or proprietors, and governments in China and Japan demonstrate that the endeavors to save and revitalize these three traditional folk art forms participate in a trend towards cultural heterogenization or diversification, a crucial dimension in countering the homogenization of culture by the dominant Western powers under the processes of globalization.
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