’When You Drink Water, Think of Its Source”: Morality, Status, and Reinvention in Ryral Chinese Funerals

Fictive Kin, Families We Choose, and Voluntary Kin: What Does the Discourse Tell Us?

“…Most obvious is the profound respect demanded of younger people for elders, a tradition strongly rooted in Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucianist religious doctrines” (p. 198). More specifically, Oxfeld () described the Chinese tradition of “dry daughters” and “dry sons” (p. 976). According to Oxfeld (), these “are individuals who are ‘adopted’ for ritual purposes or to establish a link between families [who] remain with their natal families and have none of the responsibilities or rights of actual descendants” (p. 976).…”

“…Ebaugh and Curry () view ritual kin as social capital, providing participants with both material support and socioemotional connection. Oxfeld () described how “dry daughters” and “dry sons,” even though they do not have responsibilities to care for adoptive parents while they are alive, “can be included as principal mourners in funeral rites and therefore have responsibilities toward these parents after death” (p. 976).…”

The Good Samaritan's new trouble: A study of the changing moral landscape in contemporary China1

“…In my own research, I have paid more attention to the changing moral landscape in the domain of private life, while rarely discussing parallel changes in public life (Yan 2003). To argue for the persistence of traditional values and ethics, Oxfeld cites countless examples of how villagers remember and remunerate favours, considering them as both social and moral debts (2004). Jankowiak (2004) chooses to focus on the positive moral changes in urban settings, such as the increasing occupational prestige of lawyers because they are perceived to pursue justice, the growing individual contributions to charity work, and the rise of a broad sense of shared community in what he calls ‘ethical nationalism’.…”

“…At a rather abstract level, the rise of utilitarianism, materialism, and other individual‐oriented values has been regarded as an ethical shift from communist asceticism to consumerist hedonism (Ci 1994; Wang 2002). Although not focusing explicitly on moral discourse and practices, some recent ethnographies of rural China reveal worrisome indicators of a moral vacuum (Liu 2000) or the rise of an egotistic culture (Yan 2003), while other studies show the continuity of traditional virtues (Oxfeld 2004). Yet, the development of volunteerism and philanthropy, the mushrooming of various NGOs, and the growth of rights movements point to the emergence of a new kind of moral reasoning beyond personal relations and the expansion of compassion, sympathy, and assistance to unrelated strangers (see Jankowiak 2004; Li 2006; Thelle 2004; Weller 2005; and Wonacott 2004).…”

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

“…Liu, 2000, pp. 152-1 53;Oxfeld, 2004). Villagers could now clearly tell which families were wealthy for they were described as "having money to spend" (youqianhua) in paying moral tribute to their ancestors.…”