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

191 Pages·2021·9.126 MB·English

by  Andrew B. Kipnis

ANTHROPOLOGY | ASIAN STUDIES K
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In rural China funerals are conducted locally, on village land by village elders. N
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But in urban areas, people have neither land for burials nor elder relatives to S
conduct funerals. Chinese urbanization, which has increased drastically in
recent decades, involves the creation of cemeteries, state-run funeral homes,
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and small private funerary businesses. The Funeral of Mr. Wang examines
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social change in urbanizing China through the lens of funerals, the funerary
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industry, and practices of memorialization. It analyzes changes in family life,

patterns of urban sociality, transformations in economic relations, the politics F
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of memorialization, and the echoes of these changes in beliefs about the
dead and ghosts. N
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“This book is highly original and addresses a topic of central importance to R THE FUNERAL OF MR. WANG
understanding Chinese family life and the limits of a party-state’s regulatory A
power over the society and individual citizens. Original and systematic field- L
work is expertly used to illustrate core arguments. To my knowledge there is
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no competing ethnography.”
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LIFE, DEATH, AND GHOSTS IN URBANIZING CHINA
Deborah Davis, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Yale University
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ANDREW B. KIPNIS
“The Funeral of Mr. Wang is a vivid portrait of how the transition from life to R
death is negotiated in the midst of a rapidly transforming urban Chinese so- .

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ciety. Showing how death in contemporary China generates interconnected
processes of cultural recombination among family members, funeral service A
providers, bureaucratic regulators, strangers, and ghosts, this book will be crit- N
ical reading for all students of China and of death in contemporary societies.” G
David A. Palmer, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China
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ANDREW B. KIPNIS is Professor of Anthropology at The Chi- RB, D
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nese University of Hong Kong, coeditor of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic NA
Theory, and author of From Village to City: Social Transformation in a IZINTH, A
Chinese County Seat. GN
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A free version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California TS
Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
Cover design: Sandy Drooker.
Cover illustrations: Photographs by Andrew B. Kipnis.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
WWW.UCPRESS.EDU
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from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and
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The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation
gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Sue Tsao
Endowment Fund in Chinese Studies.
The Funeral of Mr. Wang

The Funeral of Mr. Wang
Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China
Andrew B. Kipnis
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2021 by Andrew Kipnis
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons [CC-BY-NC-ND] license.
To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Suggested citation: Kipnis, A. B. The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and
Ghosts in Urbanizing China. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.105
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kipnis, Andrew B., author.
Title: The funeral of Mr. Wang : life, death, and ghosts in urbanizing China /
Andrew B. Kipnis.
Description: [Oakland, California] : University of California Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021001644 (print) | lccn 2021001645 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520381971 (paperback) | isbn 9780520381995 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Funeral rites and ceremonies—China—21st century. |
Death—Social aspects—China. | Social change—China.
Classification: LCC GT3283.A2 .K57 2021 (print) | LCC GT3283.A2 (ebook) |
DDC 393/.9309510905—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001644
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001645
Manufactured in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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

List of Illustrations
MAPS
1. Chinese cities mentioned in this book xi
2. Nanjing 33
FIGURES
1. Varieties of spirit money 11
2. Paraphernalia stalls at cemetery 16
3. Grave relocation compensation notice 36
4. Wall burials at the Garden of Merit 41
5. Gravesites at the Garden of Merit 41
6. Grave of Communist martyr at the Garden of Merit 41
7. Humanism Memorial Museum 43
8. Section of New Fourth Army Memorial 44
9. Chen Duxiu’s tomb 45
10. Wall burials in Fu Shou Yuan 45
11. Children’s section of Fu Shou Yuan 46
12. Tombs in a non-elite graveyard 48
13. Trash in a non-elite graveyard 48
14. Tombstone with names painted in red and black 60
15. Sign near Tianjin graveyard 106
16. Carved depiction of filial piety at cemetery 124
17. Graffiti 131