Abstract

Every country has a folk culture unique to that country, every ethnic group has a folk culture unique to that ethnic group. Folk songs are the core of a folk culture. The original life styles, thoughts, values of a people all find their expressions in folk songs. Hero songs make up a premier category of Horqin folk songs. The American cowboy songs present a perfect image of a hero which accords with the expectation of American myth. This paper tries to build a bridge between the two seemingly distant cultures by taking Gada Merin and Jesse James as examples to compare the image of heroes in Mongolian Horqin folk songs with that in American western cowboy songs. Both folk songs are trying to present the real stories of authentic people. The characters in both songs are courageous, bold and wise; but they both seem to come to bad ends in the similar ways. The tragic fate of Gada Merin and the bad reputation of Jesse James do not interfere with their popularity among people. But the dissimilarities are more obvious. The different historical and cultural backgrounds create different kinds of heroes. Horqin heroes, with particular political goals, are better organized and better educated. Horqin heroes more cherish collective honor while American cowboy heroes more indulge in individualism and heroism.

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