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The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

In rural China funerals are conducted locally, on village land by village elders. But in urban areas, people have neither land for burials nor elder relatives to conduct funerals. Chinese urbanization, which has increased drastically in recent decades, involves the creation of cemeteries, state-run funeral homes, and small private funerary businesses. The Funeral of Mr. Wang examines social change in urbanizing China through the lens of funerals, the funerary industry, and practices of memorialization. It analyzes changes in family life, patterns of urban sociality, transformations in economic relations, the politics of memorialization, and the echoes of these changes in beliefs about the dead and ghosts.
 
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The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

In rural China funerals are conducted locally, on village land by village elders. But in urban areas, people have neither land for burials nor elder relatives to conduct funerals. Chinese urbanization, which has increased drastically in recent decades, involves the creation of cemeteries, state-run funeral homes, and small private funerary businesses. The Funeral of Mr. Wang examines social change in urbanizing China through the lens of funerals, the funerary industry, and practices of memorialization. It analyzes changes in family life, patterns of urban sociality, transformations in economic relations, the politics of memorialization, and the echoes of these changes in beliefs about the dead and ghosts.
 
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The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China

The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China

by Andrew B. Kipnis
The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China
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The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China

The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China

by Andrew B. Kipnis

Overview

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

In rural China funerals are conducted locally, on village land by village elders. But in urban areas, people have neither land for burials nor elder relatives to conduct funerals. Chinese urbanization, which has increased drastically in recent decades, involves the creation of cemeteries, state-run funeral homes, and small private funerary businesses. The Funeral of Mr. Wang examines social change in urbanizing China through the lens of funerals, the funerary industry, and practices of memorialization. It analyzes changes in family life, patterns of urban sociality, transformations in economic relations, the politics of memorialization, and the echoes of these changes in beliefs about the dead and ghosts.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520381971
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 07/27/2021
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 190
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Andrew B. Kipnis is Professor of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, coeditor of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, and author of From Village to City: Social Transformation in a Chinese County Seat.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

1 The Funeral of Mr. Wang 1

2 Of Transitions and Transformations 18

3 Of Space and Place: Separation and Distinction in the Homes of the Dead 28

4 Of Strangers and Kin: Moral Family and Ghastly Strangers in Urban Sociality 52

5 Of Gifts and Commodities: Spending on the Dead While Providing for the Living 71

6 Of Rules and Regulations: Governing Mourning 92

7 Of Souls and Spirits: Secularization and its Limits 111

8 Of Dreams and Memories: A Ghost Story From a Land Where Haunting Is Banned 129

Epilogue 145

Notes 149

References 153

Index 163

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