Experiencing the De-statization of the Family Ritual in Postsocialist China: Morality, Resource and State Power

Abstract

This paper seeks to elucidate the moral, resource and political elements being absorbed into the subjective experience of postsocialist change in contemporary China. It is observed that under rampant state-led destatization, the resurgence of specific family rituals invokes among individuals diverse postsocialist experiences. Two population groups are compared, one urban in a Shanghai community, and one rural Miao-ethnic village in Hunan. It is argued that however diverse these experiences seem to be, they are underlain by a similar disposition to keep the state out of their family affairs.