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    Reinventing Chinese Tradition
    The Cultural Politics of Late Socialism

    Ka-ming Wu (Author)

    9780252039881

    Hardback, published 15 November 2015

    208 pages, 18 black and white photographs, 2 maps
    22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.426 kg

    "This book constitutes an excellent contribution to contemporary Chinese folklore studies and would make a wonderful addition to undergraduate courses on East Asian folklore and cross-cultural explorations of contemporary cultural politics."--Journal of American Folklore

    "I have read nothing like it in the field of Chinese studies. Original, insightful, and thoughtful, this book will be a must-read for a wide audience."--Lisa Rofel, author of Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture

    "A lively, engaging ethnography."--China Quarterly

    The final destination of the Long March and center of the Chinese Communist Party's red bases, Yan'an acquired mythical status during the Maoist era. Though the city's significance as an emblem of revolutionary heroism has faded, today's Chinese still glorify Yan'an as a sanctuary for ancient cultural traditions.

    Ka-ming Wu's ethnographic account of contemporary Yan'an documents how people have reworked the revival of three rural practices--paper-cutting, folk storytelling, and spirit cults--within (and beyond) the socialist legacy. Moving beyond dominant views of Yan'an folk culture as a tool of revolution or object of market reform, Wu reveals how cultural traditions become battlegrounds where conflicts among the state, market forces, and intellectuals in search of an authentic China play out. At the same time, she shows these emerging new dynamics in the light of the ways rural residents make sense of rapid social change.

    Alive with details, Reinventing Chinese Tradition is an in-depth, eye-opening study of an evolving culture and society within contemporary China.

    Cover
    Title Page
    Copyright
    Contents
    Preface
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    Chapter 1. Paper-Cuts in Modern China: The Search for Modernity, Cultural Tradition, and Women's
    Chapter 2. Narrative Battle: Fabricating Folk Paper-Cutting as an Intangible Heritage
    Chapter 3. Traditional Revival with Socialist Characteristics Propaganda Storytelling Turned into
    Chapter 4: Folk Cultural Production with Danwei Characteristics: Folk Storytelling and Public
    Chapter 5. Spirit Cults in Yan'an: Surrogate Rural Subjectivity in the Urbanizing Rural
    Notes
    Glossary
    References
    Index
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