Market Economy Lives, Socialist Death
Contemporary Commemorations in Urban China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6008461 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Huwy-Min Lucia Liu (0000-0003-3422-3141, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 178-203 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern China (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0097-7004 • E-ISSN: 1552-6836 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0097700419879121 |
| OpenAlex | W2979874015 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 28 |
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in funeral parlors in Shanghai in 2010 and 2011, this article finds that regardless of how they lived, urban Chinese in Shanghai today are mainly commemorated in “memorial meetings” 追悼会. By analyzing what memorial meetings are through examining the modernist emotional expression and bodily movements as well as socialist narratives in these rituals, this article shows that memorial meetings transform dead bodies into proper persons—socialist citizen subjects—posthumously. This is possible because of the rehabilitating power that this ritual acquired during the Cultural Revolution. However, the Chinese government has been discouraging people from having memorial meetings since the beginning of its economic reforms. Consequently, performing memorial meetings in this contemporary context creates a moment of disjuncture by providing people with a chance to reflect on what being a citizen in China means today. Such dissonance allows people to momentarily recognize alternatives to their market-driven daily life
Aesthetics · Art · China · Cognitive dissonance · Communism · Context (archaeology · Cultural revolution · Ethnography · Government (linguistics · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Socialism · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society
Urbanity, Cosmopolitanism, Consumption
The Navigation of Feeling
The Trading Crowd
Frame analysis
Serving the Ancestors, Serving the State
Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China
The Sage and the People
Drink Water, but Remember the SourceMoral Discourse in a Chinese Village
In One's Own Shadow
Multicultural Challenges and Redefining Identity in East Asia
Separation and Reunion in Modern China
Ritual and Its Consequences
The Religious Question in Modern China
The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village
The Subject of Virtue
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City
Ritual
Monism, pluralism, and the structure of value relations
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,8 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |