Recycling Tradition: Culture, History, and Political Economy in the Chrysanthemum Festivals of South China

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, a gentleman in Xiaolan having the Mai surname wrote in his memoir:Age eighteen, the forty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign [1782], there was a chrysanthemum festival. Each major surname group put on floral displays, and six platforms were set up throughout the town. There were scores of theatrical troupes whose performance brought together kinsmen and friends. The tradition of the festival started that year. • The narrative continued, Age twenty-seven, the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign [1791], the chrysanthemum festival of that year was more elaborate than before.Age fifty, the nineteenth year of the reign of Jiaqing [1814], the town held another community-wide celebration. The staging of chrysanthemum operas the year before prompted the lineages to conduct a third festival. It has been twenty-four years since the last gathering. The He surname group provided two sets [of floral displays], the Li surname one set, all at their focal ancestral halls. Our own lineage mounted a display at the hall for an ancestor of the sixth generation. The weisuo [military colony] set up its own in front of the Guandi temple. 2 The Xiao surname mounted their display at the hall for their focal ancestor. The Xitu [a neighborhood division] gave a display at the Zhong ancestral hall. A Li lineage also had its own display, as did the Liang of Luoyong and the Shifu temple.

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

“…One might be tempted to conclude that the resurgence of the family ritual -which had been pursued for centuries before it was interrupted by more recent socialist politics -has marked the re-definition of a unifying cultural identity (as members of the Miaoethnic minority) among the villagers. This has been a point wellacknowledged in a number of studies (Watson, 1985;Watson & Rawski, 1988;Siu, 1990). However, this straightforward analysis was rather undermined during a casual exchange with Long HZ.…”

“…Moreover, rituals and the symbols involved are polysemic and multivocal; and are constantly challenged by social practices and frequently transformed as a result (Sperber, 1975;Lewis, 1980;Sahlins, 198 1;Comaroff, 1985;Ortner, 1989). In contemporary China, there is almost a consensus that traditional rituals are subject to improvisations by contemporary needs in diverse contexts no matter how one attempts to account for the revival of traditional rites in terms of "recycling" tradition, (Siu, 1989(Siu, , 1990, or loosening state control (Jing, 1996;Anagnost, 1994); or a more comprehensive and complicated formulation such that the re-enactment of ritual draws on "available cultural materials, and revived traditions [which] inevitably become part of ongoing social relations and cultural meanings" (Oxfeld, 2004, p. 963).…”

“…Evidently, the two sites correspond quite neatly to the scholarly notion of "urban-rural divide" reflecting the uneven regional development in contemporary China (Knight & Song, 1999;Yang & Zhou, 1999). Much has been said about how these two types of communities are like poles of an insurmountable social cleavage, e.g., one being the leading force of the reform, one breeding social culprits described as "peasant-workers" (rning~ng)~ (Davin, 1997); one representing the reform "dragon-head," one struggling "under the shadow" (Liu, 2000); one being laden with a wide range of futuristic consumption desires (e.g., Latham, 2002;Gamble, 1996;Davis, 2000) and one recycling tradition (Siu, 1989(Siu, , 1990. This academic inclination to a great extent acknowledges the truism of the situation, as urban and rural areas have long been subject to two different sets of administrative and legal regulations in China.…”

Religious Revival in Rural China: Ethnographic Reflections on the State and Morality

“…Major attention is paid to the survival or renewal of traditional practices. For example, Helen Siu (1990) conceptualises the revival of Chrysanthemum Festivals in the Pearl River delta as an example of 'recycled tradition', an entire accommodation to the activities of market economic reform and their political institutions. Discussing the rebuilding of a Confucius temple in a village in Northwest China after bitter relocation, Jun Jing (1996, 12) argues that social memories 'are not mechanically retrieved from the past; they are blended with cultural inventions, shaped by the local experience of Maoism, and permeated with contemporary concerns'.…”

Capital with beliefs—a study of charitable donations of private business owners in Wenzhou, China

“…Government can also encourage charitable donation through the implementation of tax credits (Eaton Berrien 1949;Labovitz John 1974;Latcham Franklin 1950). Scholars also find that with regard to the power of state ideology, in both disastrous emergency and everyday donations, ideological propaganda has played an active role in the collective mobilization of material goods (Perry 2007;Siu 1990). As an ideological leader, the state is able to use the media, education, and other channels to quickly internalize rhetoric such as "corporate social responsibility" (Joyner and Payne 2002), "personal sacrifice" (Cao 2007), or "when trouble occurs at one spot, help comes from all quarters" into people's minds, thus promoting charitable giving (Wuthnow and Hunter 1984).…”