Timely signs, dominance, and vernal celebrations in late imperial Southern China
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The aim of this essay is to contribute to the anthropological exploration of “traditional culture” in the Chinese south. Focussing on a description of one early-spring celebration in a township in Jiangxi Province, it suggests that these ceremonies are connected only superficially with local society and therefore lack a local message. A brief comparison suggests that there was nationwide conformity in the staging of these ceremonies, a degree of conventionality pointing to a single common origin —the discourse of the imperial state. Supreme dominance was articulated in ways that made the idea of the omnipotent emperor blessing his country manifest locally. Historically foreign to local southern societies, the festival was concerned with political incorporation, while still maintaining a degree of social alienation in that its main rituals were performed by the local state administrators alone. Demotic responses in local southern cultural contexts were limited and different.
Source: Civilisations
Author: Göran Aijmer
Institution: University of Gothenburg
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3215982175