Rituals concerning separation and reunion and their impact on Chinese and Taiwanese society and culture.

Charles Stafford explores the Chinese fascination with separation and reunion, based upon his field studies in Taiwan and mainland China. He gives a vivid account of everyday rituals, and examines how they help people settle into communities, and to explain the passions aroused by the possibility of national culture.

Making National Heroes is an ethnography of the making of national heroes in the commemoration of the Second World War in contemporary China. Foregrounding the lived experience of men and women who participate in commemorative activities, it theorises how masculinity and nationalism entangle in recollecting war memories. Taking the feminist line of inquiry, this anthropological study develops an approach to capture the centrality of making exemplars in the realisation of hegemonic masculinities. It adds a gender perspective to studies on exemplarist moral theory and theorises exemplary men’s cross-cultural significance in defining masculinities. Researchers in the fields of critical masculinity studies, anthropology, feminist methodology, China studies, and memory studies will be interested in this book. “I highly recommend this book about the grassroots redress movement that seeks to make national heroes of the largely forgotten KMT soldiers from pre-1949 times. By way of exploring this intriguing topic, Jacqueline Zhenru Lin gives a fascinating account of how nationalism and gender interact to produce exemplary masculinities in present-day China.”—Kam Louie, University of Hong Kong “Firmly grounded in anthropology, but with historical and digital analyses woven throughout, the author eloquently opens new avenues for reflection in Chinese masculinities research. This important contribution draws new attention to links between masculinity, nation, and memory in a media-saturated world.”—Jamie Coates, University of Sheffield

This work draws on feminist and critical theory and on anthropological and historical research to analyze the changing articulations of gender subjectivity that emerge from the links between discursive shifts, generational differences, and individual experiences of the mother-daughter relationship."--BOOK JACKET.

"The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the Manchu conquest of China were traumatic experiences for Chinese intellectuals, not only because of the many decades of destructive warfare but also because of the adjustments necessary to life under a foreign regime. History became a defining subject in their writings, and it went on shaping literary production in succeeding generations as the Ming continued to be remembered, re-imagined, and refigured on new terms. The twelve chapters in this volume and the introductory essays on early Qing poetry, prose, and drama understand the writings of this era wholly or in part as attempts to recover from or transcend the trauma of the transition years. By the end of the seventeenth century, the sense of trauma had diminished, and a mood of accommodation had taken hold. Varying shades of lament or reconciliation, critical or nostalgic retrospection on the Ming, and rejection or acceptance of the new order distinguish the many voices in these writings."

The essays in this volume present contemporary anthropological perspectives on Chinese kinship, its historical complexity and its modern metamorphoses. The collection draws particular attention to the reverberations of larger socio-cultural and politico-economic processes in the formation of sociality, intimate relations, family histories, reproductive strategies and gender relations – and vice-versa. Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic material from the late imperial period and from contemporary Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, from northern and southern regions as well as from rural and urban settings, the volume provides unique insights into the historical and spatial diversities of the Chinese kinship experience. This emphasis on diversity challenges the classic ‘lineage paradigm’ of Chinese kinship and establishes a dialogue with contemporary anthropological debates about human kinship reflecting on the emergence of radically new family formations in the Euro-American context. Chinese Kinship will be of interest to anthropologists and sinologists, as to historians and social scientists in general.

Informative and eye-opening, the Handbook on Religion in China provides a uniquely broad insight into the contemporary Chinese variations of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. In turn, China's own religions and transmissions of rites and systems of divination have spread beyond China, a progression that is explored in detail across 19 chapters, written by leading experts in the field.

Post-Mao China has been characterized in literature and the media as a burgeoning consumer society. Consuming China investigates this characterization by examining the cultural significance of consumption and consumerism in the People’s Republic of China today. In questioning the notion of consumption, this impressive work suggests that it is not simply a symptom of economic reform within China neither a product of the emergence and transformation of contemporary Chinese capitalism. Rather, the essays offer a new perspective on Chinese consumption by focusing on more than just consumerism, looking at the practices of consumption in relation to different manifestations of social and cultural change. Drawing on case studies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China, Consuming China affords a greater understanding of the practice of Chinese consumption and will appeal to China scholars and anthropologists, and to those with an interest in cultural and gender studies.

This book compares aspirations and life choices among educated young adults in urban China and Taiwan. As two places that share a cultural heritage but very different political and economic systems, it assesses how the socio-economic and political trajectories of China and Taiwan have influenced young people's decision-making and the strategies they apply to realize their goals. Drawing upon ethnographic research, this book analyzes young adults’ choices in the areas of education, career and marriage, considering their individual social backgrounds and economic resources. In this context, it also discusses how feelings of hope, doubt and disenchantment are mitigated by the specific societal atmospheres and ideological discourses. Whereas stable employment and marriage appeared to be universal goals, this book demonstrates how young adults in Beijing had more autonomy in decision-making concerning individual life choices than those in Taipei. Among other things, China's demographic controls and urban migration policies appear to increase the independence of young people from their parents. Further, the prevalence of boarding school education in China compared to Taiwan provides an opportunity for earlier autonomy for young people in China. Taking a comparative approach, Young Adults in Urban China and Taiwan will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Chinese Studies and Taiwan Studies, as well as social and cultural anthropology and youth culture.

A thought-provoking examination of death, dying, and the afterlife Prominent scholars present their most recent work about mortuary rituals, grief and mourning, genocide, cyclical processes of life and death, biomedical developments, and the materiality of human corpses in this unique and illuminating book. Interrogating our most common practices surrounding death, the authors ask such questions as: How does the state wrest away control over the dead from bereaved relatives? Why do many mourners refuse to cut their emotional ties to the dead and nurture lasting bonds? Is death a final condition or can human remains acquire agency? The book is a refreshing reassessment of these issues and practices, a source of theoretical inspiration in the study of death. With contributions written by an international team of experts in their fields, A Companion to the Anthropology of Death is presented in six parts and covers such subjects as: Governing the Dead in Guatemala; After Death Communications (ADCs) in North America; Cryonic Suspension in the Secular Age; Blood and Organ Donation in China; The Fragility of Biomedicine; and more. A Companion to the Anthropology of Death is a comprehensive and accessible volume and an ideal resource for senior undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as Anthropology of Death, Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Violence, Anthropology of the Body, and Political Anthropology. Written by leading international scholars in their fields A comprehensive survey of the most recent empirical research in the anthropology of death A fundamental critique of the early 20th century founding fathers of the anthropology of death Cross-cultural texts from tribal and industrial societies The collection is of interest to anyone concerned with the consequences of the state and massive violence on life and death