Search Results (232)

Rural heritage villages in China face compounding pressures from heritagisation policies, tourism marketisation, and digital platform logics, which together threaten the cultural integrity of lineage-based communities. While existing scholarship has shifted from treating authenticity as a fixed property to viewing it as a negotiated construct, a critical gap persists: the literature does not explain how local actors operationally manage the simultaneous demands of external governance compliance and internal cultural continuity. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography conducted across ritual spaces, tourism settings, and digital platforms in Huizhou lineage villages (March–August 2025)—including over 30 h of in-depth interviews with 18 cultural practitioners and two years of online community ethnography (2023–2025) within Huizhou traditional village cultural liaison groups—this study examines the micro-level strategies through which communities respond to Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD). The study introduces the concept of Versioned Governance: a community-enacted mechanism through which cultural authenticity is strategically differentiated into ritual, performative, and pedagogical versions. Through spatial partitioning, temporal staggering, and linguistic encoding, lineage groups create cultural buffer zones that mediate between sacred practice and public display without compromising ethical coherence. This framework reframes authenticity not as an essential property nor as mere negotiated perception, but as a processual and political achievement—continuously produced through the interplay of structural discipline and local agency. The findings contribute to critical heritage studies and offer practical implications for cultural land-use and heritage governance policy in non-Western rural contexts. Full article

This study examines how tourists engage with non-daily and non-modern experiences through Hanfu costume tourism in China. In the context of the growing revival of Hanfu and the expansion of cultural heritage tourism, the research explores how costume-based practices enable participants to immerse themselves in imagined historical lifeworlds and negotiate cultural meaning. A mixed-method design was adopted, combining a quantitative survey of 476 tourists with qualitative textual analysis of travel blogs and vlogs shared on social media platforms. The findings support a three-dimensional framework: cultural–historical imagination (embodied nostalgia and connection to an idealized past), ritualized festivity (collective performance and liminal engagement in heritage spaces), and aesthetic appreciation (non-utilitarian visual and sensory pleasure contrasting with everyday clothing). We conclude that Hanfu costume tourism is not historical reenactment but an active, embodied process of cultural engagement and identity negotiation, predominantly practised by a subculture of young, educated, urban Han Chinese women. By providing empirical evidence for a three-dimensional framework, this research contributes to theories of nostalgia, liminality, and embodied heritage in cultural tourism and offers practical implications for designing immersive heritage experiences. Full article

Archaeological reports show that about 70% of Han dynasty pictorial stone sites feature historical figures, revealing a significant yet understudied aspect of tomb ritual practice (muji yishi). This study examines how these depictions may reflect ritual characteristics and their relationship to temple ritual practice (miaoji yishi). From the Qin to Han period (221 BCE–220 CE), tomb and temple rituals increasingly converged; temple rituals were sometimes performed by tombs, and the imagery incorporated cosmological models alongside representations of daily life, including clothing, diet, dwellings, and mobility. The historical figures depicted can be grouped into three categories: emperors and sages, loyal ministers and righteous heroes, and filial sons and chaste women. These figures were closely associated with ideals of transcendence and immortality, suggesting a ritual framework that connected temple and tomb practices, with emperors and sages appearing most frequently, accounting for about 80% of the depictions. Notably, these images occur predominantly in commoners’ tombs (approximately 95%), where fewer social restrictions may have allowed greater creative freedom. While research on tomb ritual practices has traditionally relied on textual sources, the present study emphasizes archaeological evidence, offering an analytical perspective on the relationship between temple and tomb rituals in Han funeral art and highlighting their potential role in shaping Han ritual logic and religious expression. Full article

The Beiyue Temple in Quyang County, Hebei Province, served as the host temple for worshipping the Northern Peak Deity (Beiyue shen) from its establishment during the reign of Emperor Xuanwu (483–515) of Northern Wei until the reign of Emperor Shunzhi (1638–1661) of the Qing dynasty. The temple currently houses over 200 inscribed stone steles that predate the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. This study addresses how the sacrificial space inside the Beiyue Temple evolved and transformed. By examining historical and archaeological evidence—including archival documents, epigraphic texts, diagrams, and architectural remnants—and focusing on the ‘front altar, rear garden’, the ‘hall for presenting sacrificial offerings of the common people’, and the ‘overhanging eave’, it demonstrates that the temple’s ritual space developed a dual character shaped by both official and folk practices. This duality reflects the interaction between official and folk practices against the backdrop of ‘the downward diffusion of ritual norms’ (lizhi xiayi) from the Tang and Song dynasties onwards. The findings challenge the conventional view that there was no specific space for folk ritual worship inside state-sanctioned temples during the Northern Song dynasty. It also provides vital evidence for the historical development of the sacrificial hall (xiandian) and the layout of pavilion-style stages (wuting) immediately in front of the main hall in temples built during the Song and Jin dynasties. Full article

Edible insects are increasingly recognized as sustainable and nutrient-dense ingredients with potential applications across diverse food systems. While their use in solid foods has been widely explored, the incorporation of insect-derived ingredients into beverages remains fragmented and insufficiently conceptualized. This narrative review critically examines the current state of insect-based beverages, integrating technological, nutritional, cultural, and market-oriented perspectives. Rather than adopting a fully systematic review methodology, this article synthesizes representative scientific literature, traditional practices, and emerging commercial examples to explore how edible insects are being positioned within two distinct yet complementary pathways: (i) functional beverages targeting nutrition, gut health, sports performance, immunity, and meal replacement, and (ii) experiential beverages driven by culinary storytelling, tradition, ritual, and sensory innovation, such as insect-infused beers and spirits. Relevant sources were identified through searches of major scientific databases using combinations of keywords such as edible insects, entomophagy, insect-based beverages, functional beverages, and insect protein, with emphasis on peer-reviewed literature published mainly over the past two decades, complemented by representative examples of traditional practices and emerging commercial products. The review discusses the nutritional and biofunctional potential of insect-derived proteins, lipids, and chitin-related components, with particular emphasis on their behavior in liquid matrices, including solubility, stability, flavor impact, and processing constraints. Technological challenges associated with beverage formulations are critically assessed. In parallel, consumer perception is examined through the lens of neophobia, sensory expectations, and the role of cultural framing and gastronomy in facilitating acceptance. By bridging food science, beverage technology, and food culture, this review identifies key knowledge gaps and research priorities for advancing insect-based beverages beyond niche applications. It argues that future development in this field will depend not only on technological optimization and a regulatory framework, but also on the deliberate design of products that integrate functionality with meaningful culinary and cultural narratives. Full article

This conceptual and spiritual autoethnographic essay proposes tendering masculinities as a framework for late-life formation that moves men from performance to presence and from control to communion. Drawing on Jungian alchemy (nigredo, albedo, rubedo) and the movements of decolonizing, queering, and befriending, the piece integrates fieldnotes with theological and depth-psychological reflection to articulate three interwoven practices for elderhood: imperfection as belonging, brokenness as illumination, and holding opposites without hardening. The argument reframes masculine strength as reliable, relational tenderness expressed through micro-practices such as grief literacy, “weaponless speech,” soul friendship (anam cara), and collaborative mentorship within families and intergenerational relationships. Implications are offered for chaplaincy, pastoral counseling, spiritual direction, men’s groups, social work, and family or community contexts, with guidance on designing rituals of lament, contemplative listening, and communities of “steady tenderness.” By bridging depth psychology, poetic theology, and lived practice, the essay suggests that tendered masculinities can help families and relational systems cultivate stronger spiritual resilience, counter patterns of domination or disconnection, and contribute to communal healing. Limitations of single-author autoethnography and pathways for applied, practice-based research are noted. Full article

The Hyakuzahōdan Kikigakishō (百座法談聞書抄, hereafter Hyakuza 百座), compiled in the late Heian period, is an important Buddhist document that records a hundred-day lecture series on the Lotus Sutra (法華経). While previous scholarship has recognized the constructed nature of the text as a kikigaki (聞書), it has predominantly focused on content analysis, implicitly treating the text as a transparent window into the actual preaching event. To move beyond this limitation, this study proposes the analytical framework of dual performativity and, drawing on Diana Taylor’s theory of the archive and the repertoire, reexamines the text’s generative logic and political implications. This study argues that the Hyakuza embodies two interrelated forms of performance: first, the performativity of the hōdan (法談) as a live ritual, understood as a repertoire performance that constructs immediate authority through body, voice, and situational dynamics; second, the performativity of the kikigaki as textual construction, understood as an archival performance that transforms the ephemeral oral event into an authoritative, transmissible text through formulaic rhetoric, localized adaptation, and systematic arrangement. Integrating methodologies from textual history, rhetorical analysis, ritual theory, and intellectual history, this study demonstrates that the Hyakuza is not a neutral transcript of sermons but a meticulous, intentional act of writing with two fundamental aims: on a cultural level, to hierarchically integrate shinbutsu shūgō (神仏習合) through narrative appropriation; on a social level, to symbolically bind Buddhist merit with the institutional identities of aristocrats such as naishinnō (内親王), ultimately serving the self-affirmation internal cohesion, and cultural demarcation of the elite community from the masses, while simultaneously contributing to the state’s project of constructing a unified ideology in the late Heian period. By examining both cross-civilizational universal logic and specific historical context, this study reveals how the Hyakuza’s dual performativity produces and categorizes knowledge narratives while embedding political power dynamics, offering a critical path for the study of kikigaki-genre literature from discourse analysis to politics of textuality. Full article

This article develops the analytical concept of post-liturgical female rituality to examine informal religious practices created by Western Ukrainian female labor migrants in Israel. Drawing on approaches that conceptualize ritual as flexible, embodied, and processual, it focuses on women’s ritual activities that take place in close temporal and symbolic proximity to official church liturgy while remaining outside canonical frameworks. Rather than directly challenging institutional religion, these practices extend and reinterpret patriarchal liturgy through gendered forms of ritual engagement. The analysis is based on qualitative research among Ukrainian Greek Catholic women in Israel, including 27 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and digital ethnography. The findings highlight three interconnected dimensions: collective gatherings following church services; post-liturgical practices involving food, singing, and embodied performance; and national-religious rituals expressing emotional belonging to Ukraine in the context of war. The article argues that post-liturgical female rituals constitute a distinct form of women’s religious agency that operates within institutional Christianity while reworking its meanings, contributing to feminist scholarship on ritual, migration, and war. Full article

This article documents and analyzes a three-month intercultural performance collaboration with Metamorphosis Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the summer of 1992—a pivotal moment following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork methodology developed through decades of collaboration with Indigenous communities in Alaska, Southern Africa, and Siberia, the project employed trance techniques, rhythm-based training, and ritual archaeology to reconstruct pre-Christian Slavic performance practices. The resulting production, Shadows from the Planet Fire, emerged through a process that positioned ritual not as nostalgic revival but as a living technology for addressing cultural trauma and existential displacement. This account contributes to performance studies, applied theatre, and cultural heritage discourse by demonstrating how cosmocentric Indigenous methodologies can be adapted to address the spiritual and psychological wounds of post-industrial, post-colonial societies. The work establishes foundational principles for what the author terms “Techdigenous” practice—the synthesis of Indigenous wisdom traditions with contemporary performance contexts—and argues for ritual as a necessary consciousness technology in an era of ecological crisis and cultural fragmentation. Full article

By analyzing the devotional practices at Qinglong Temple in Chaozhou, this article illuminates a symbolic circuit in Chinese folk religion wherein sincerity is materialized through reverent offerings to secure divine reciprocity. It further explores the ethical logic, symbolic mechanisms, and processes of social construction underlying the pattern. More broadly, the vibrant ritual life at Qinglong Temple demonstrates that far from being a relic of the past, such economies of sincere exchange are a vital and adaptive mechanism through which folk traditions negotiate their place and thrive within the complexities of modern China. The study reveals that Chinese folk religion operates as a dynamic system of practices embedded in everyday rituals, emotional ethics, and social relationships. Its legitimacy arises not from abstract doctrine but from ritual performance, moral expression, and affective interaction. The article elucidates how monetary offerings, when grounded in sincerity, are reinterpreted as symbolic gifts and subsequently transformed into symbolic capital through practices such as temple donations and vow fulfillment. While resisting full assimilation into market rationality, folk religion simultaneously engages official structures to construct a hybrid religious economy that reinforces communal ethics and sustains transcendent relationships through public ritual and collective devotion. Full article

This paper examines the Xiaoshi Jingang Keyi as a case of textual re-ritualization in the later history of Chinese Buddhism. Originally compiled by the Song dynasty monk Zongjing 宗鏡, the text transformed the exegetical reading of the Diamond Sūtra into a structured sequence of ritual acts centered on the notion of “entering the Diamond Dharma Assembly.” Its internal design—organized around the scripture’s “Thirty-two Sections” (三十二分) and the “Sevenfold Structure” (七種規模)—enabled successive generations to adapt the text to diverse ceremonial contexts. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward, the Jingang Keyi circulated widely in ritual form across China, particularly within the Hokkien-speaking regions of Fujian and Guangdong, where the most active performance traditions emerged and later extended to Taiwan and Maritime Southeast Asia through migration. These vernacular enactments, often led by ritual specialists and supported by female lay associations (caigu 菜姑), illustrate how the Jingang Keyi was continually localized and revitalized while maintaining its canonical authority. The longevity of the Diamond Sūtra tradition depended not only on exegetical commentary but also on the text’s inherent capacity for re-ritualization—its ability to generate new performative meanings across changing historical and cultural settings. The Xiaoshi Jingang Keyi thus exemplifies how Buddhist scriptures have sustained ritual life through flexible structure, sound, and communal devotion. Full article

This article presents a comparative analysis of divine kingship in two foundational Bronze Age civilizations: the Ur III Dynasty of Mesopotamia (ca. 2112–2004 BC) and the Shang Dynasty of China (ca. 1600–1046 BC). While both polities strategically adopted royal deification to consolidate authority within their territorial states, the underlying motivations, manifestations, and historical consequences diverged profoundly. In Ur III, king Šulgi’s self-deification was a deliberate political instrument, carefully constructed to centralize power and legitimize military expansion. This consolidation was performed explicitly through the use of the divine determinative in royal inscriptions, the establishment of state-sponsored cults with temples and statues for the living king, and the composition of royal hymns. In stark contrast, the kingship of the Shang Dynasty was a combination of divine power, clan power and military power. His authority was mediated through a monopoly on divination and ancestral communication, and expressed implicitly through ritual bronze vessels, royal tombs, and a cosmology that positioned the king at the center of the world. This study concludes that these distinct models—Ur III’s politically performative divinity versus Shang’s religio-kin-based sanctity—not only addressed contemporary crises of legitimacy but also predetermined subsequent political evolution, foreshadowing the Zhou Dynasty’s concept of virtuous governance and explaining the ultimate transience of divine kingship in both regions. Full article

Guan Yu (d. AD 220), better known by his posthumous title as Guan Gong or Lord Guan, was a prominent military general in the late Han dynasty (AD 206–220). For centuries, Lord Guan has been widely worshipped as both a god of war and a god of wealth throughout China. His worship is particularly prevalent in southern Shanxi, which is celebrated as his birthplace. This region features a notable array of temples dating from the late imperial period, many of which are specifically dedicated to his cult. As tangible heritage, Lord Guan temples represent a significant facet of Chinese architectural and religious history. Today, they continue to serve as religious spaces, where pilgrims and devotees come together to honour the deity through ritual practices and theatrical performances. These activities not only reinforce the community’s religious beliefs but also help to perpetuate the cultural and historical traditions associated with Lord Guan’s worship. Based on fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2025, the study scrutinises the restoration, preservation and conservation challenges faced by these sacred spaces and structures, emphasising the ongoing tension and collaboration between grassroots religious practices and state-led restoration initiatives. Through this examination, the paper sheds light on the multifaceted nature of tangible and intangible heritage conservation and its implications for Lord Guan’s cult in contemporary society. Full article

This article reinterprets modern realist drama as a site of secular spirituality, where aesthetic form sustains the sacred under conditions of modern secularity. Employing a phenomenological–theological framework, it integrates Charles Taylor’s account of the secular age, Mircea Eliade’s sacred–profane dialectic and hierophany, and René Girard’s anthropology of sacrifice. Through textual and performance-historical analysis of key works—Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879) and An Enemy of the People (1882)—together with Chinese modern drama shaped by Ibsenization, including Hu Shi’s translations, Lu Xun’s critiques, and Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm (1934), the article argues that realist theatre fulfils religious functions in secular culture: revelation as truth-telling, confession as critical self-disclosure, and renewal as ethical transformation. In early twentieth-century China, the encounter between Ibsen’s moral realism and indigenous moral traditions generated a distinctive spiritual humanism, in which theatre assumed ritual and didactic functions traditionally associated with religious practices. Full article

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mianning County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture between 2023 and 2024, this paper analyzes the “xiō bū” (ꑭꁮ) ritual of the Liangshan Yi people. Framed within contemporary approaches to religious anthropology and social memory theory, the study explores how this ritual constructs Yi ecological ethics, social integration, and cultural identity through nature worship, ancestral spirit beliefs, and ritual practices. The ethnographic evidence reveals that the “xiō bū” ritual, by designating wooded mountains as sacred space and performing sacrifices to nature deities and ancestral spirits, integrates “humans—nature—ancestors” into a symbiotic system of the “community of life.” This reflects the Yi people’s relational ontology and embedded ecological knowledge. The sacrificial offerings, shared meals, and purification practices in the ritual not only reinforce reverence for nature through symbolic acts but also unify the community through Durkheimian “collective effervescence,” thereby restoring the community’s spiritual order. As a carrier of social memory, the “xiō bū” ritual, through epic chanting, symbolic performances (such as clothing, ritual implements), and bodily practices (like the ritual specialist’s movements), embeds individual memories into the collective historical narrative of the group, dynamically constructing the cultural boundaries of the “Yi” people. The ritual specialists (Bimo or Suni), as intermediaries of knowledge and power, maintain religious authority through bricolage-like symbolic reorganization and foster the creative transformation of tradition in response to the challenges of modernity. The study further reveals that while the ritual faces challenges in the contemporary context, such as secularization and population mobility, it continues to activate ethnic identity by simplifying rituals, preserving core symbols, and coupling with ecological discourses, offering a model for the modern adaptation of traditional religions. This paper argues that ritual studies should engage with contemporary theoretical approaches like the ontological turn, focus on the agency of individuals, and reflect on the insights traditional knowledge systems offer in the face of globalization and ecological crises. Full article