Using animals as metaphors for current events: the “mutual accusations of the cat and the mouse” in Hokkien oral performance

Abstract As a traditional theme of Chinese oral performance, the “mutual accusations of the cat and the mouse” ( maoshu xianggao 貓鼠相告) underwent obvious local variations in the Hokkien ballads of Fujian and Taiwan in the early twentieth century. The story describes three conflicts between the cat and the mouse, who are finally reconciled with each other under the judgement of King Yama. The Hokkien ballad depicts a scene of council negotiations and introduces a number of new terms such as “Chairperson”, “representative”, “self-government” and “conference”. According to the lithographic edition of the Huiwentang Bookstore 會文堂書局 in Xiamen and the advertisements on the back cover of other publications, the Hokkien ballad was written by a Xiamen artist around 1914. This ballad reflects the local self-government movement promulgated by the Qing court in the early twentieth century and demonstrates the narrative tradition of Hokkien ballads, focused on current affairs and deploying animals as a metaphor for social reality.