Overview

Based on a total of 18 months of fieldwork in Shaanbei (northern Shaanxi province), this is the first book-length ethnographic case study of the revival of a popular religious temple in contemporary rural China. The book reveals that ""doing popular religion"" is much more complex than praying to gods and burning incense. It examines the organizational and cultural logics that inform the staging of popular religious activities such as temple festivals. It also shows the politics behind the religious revival: the village-level local activists who seize upon temples and temple associations as a valuable political, economic, and symbolic resource, and the different local state agents who interact with temple associations and temple bosses. The study sheds unique light on shifting state-society relationships in the reform era, and is of interest to scholars and students in Asian Studies, the social sciences, and religious and ritual studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Adam Yuet Chau
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford University Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.617kg
ISBN:  

9780804751605

ISBN 10:   0804751609
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   28 October 2005
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Units of Measurement, Romanization, and Dates Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Shaanbei History, Society, and Culture Chapter 3 Shaanbei Popular Religious Landscape Chapter 4 Beliefs and Practices: Shaanbei People's Religiosity and Religious Habitus Chapter 5 Legends and Histories: Heilongdawang and the Heilongdawang Temple Chapter 6 Provisioning Magical Efficacy and Divine Benevolence Chapter 7 Modes of Social Organization and Folk Event Productions Chapter 8 Red-Hot Sociality Chapter 9 Temple Boss and Local Elite: The Story of Lao Wang Chapter 10 Longwanggou and Agrarian Political Culture Chapter 11 The Local State and the Politics of Legitimation Chapter 12 Conclusion Chinese Characters Notes References Cited Index

Reviews

Adam Yuet Chau's book provides an engaging and accessible account of Chinese popular religion in Longwanggou, a community in rural northern Shaanxi, focusing on its Black Dragon King Temple .... This book is a major achievement: an important and accessible contribution to the literature of religion in China today that deserves to be widely read. --Charles Stafford, Journal of Asian Studies

More than an ethnographic case study on the revival of a local temple cult in Northern China, Miraculous Response is an intellectually stimulating engagement with the anthropological approach to Chinese local society, politics, and religion... Clearly written, with an engaging personal touch, Miraculous Response is an important contribution at several levels: it provides a detailed local case study of contemporary state-religion relations, describes the complex dynamics at work in rural elite politics in the post-Mao era, and provides a feast of new concepts and insights of broader relevance to anthropological history. -- China Review International

Author Information

Adam Yuet Chau is Departmental Lecturer in the Anthropology of Modern China at the Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Oxford.

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