Remembering the Dead in Modern China by Covell, Stephen G.; Young, Stuart H.; Zeng, Ying;

Short description:

Remembering the Dead in Modern China is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary volume that brings together diverse scholarly perspectives to examine the complex and evolving practices of death, dying, and remembrance in modern China, and features original research and thoughtful analysis that makes a significant contribution to the field.

Long description:

Remembering the Dead in Modern China is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary volume that brings together diverse scholarly perspectives to examine the complex and evolving practices of death, dying, and remembrance in modern China. Studying the ideals and practices of caring for the dead is essential to understanding social and cultural change in modern China. The chapters in this volume elucidate the many ways in which remembrance of the dead challenges established norms.

The contributors show how acts of remembrance provide opportunities to find meaning in the untimely loss of loved ones; to challenge cultural conventions by generating significance from absence in burial rituals; to refashion mourning rites in response to modern political demands; and to forge bonds between urban and rural mortuary communities. The chapters trace transformations in how the dead are remembered across a broad social spectrum, from the Imperial Court to factory workers in Maoist China to contemporary Christian converts. Taken together, they offer valuable insight into how political, economic, and religious changes have influenced people’s interactions with the dead and how those interactions, in turn, reshape the political, economic, and religious landscape.

Featuring original research and thoughtful analysis, this volume makes a significant contribution to death studies, Chinese studies, religious studies, history of religion, anthropology, and sociology. This book will appeal to scholars and students interested in the intersection of tradition and modernity in Chinese cultural practices surrounding mortality.

Table of Contents:

Introduction  1. The Ritual Politics of Imperial Death in Modern China  2. Brokering Death and Becoming Kin: Grave-Relatives and Urban-Rural Dynamics in the Yangzi Delta, 1821-1911  3. Tender Matters: Remembering Dead and Dying Children in Early Twentieth-Century China  4. Suicidal Communists, Posthumous Punishment, and Politics of Death in Maoist China  5. Materializing Yingling Personhood through Objects in the Taiwanese Ritual for Abortion and Miscarriage 6. Ritual Calculations: Omissions and Additions in Chinese Christian Graveside Practices