Chinese Funerals in San Francisco Chinatown

American Chinese Expressions in Mortuary Ritual Performance

Bibliographic Data

ID2801415
AuthorsLinda Sun Crowder (corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume113
Issue450
Pages451-463
Publication date2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Folklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8715 • E-ISSN: 1535-1882
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/542042
OpenAlexW2324891860
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited9

The public performance of funeral rituals in San Francisco Chinatown is a viewing lens through which the cultural identity of this famous ethnic community and tourist attraction is exposed. While the varied range of mortuary performances reveals the heterogeneous composition of a multiethnic Chinese place, the majority of funerals are of a standard ritual type that identifies the self-image of Chinatown as being modernized, urban Chinese. Modified and formulated in the U.S. context, the Chinatown funeral is a hybrid composite of traditional Chinese and Western cultural and religious elements. Crafted and constituted by Chinatown, these syncretic, Americanized funerals are American Chinese cultural expressions of a localized Chinatown culture

Archaeology · Chinatown · Chinese americans · Context (archaeology) · Ethnic group · Immigration · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy