Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world
16-20
July 2001 The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world |
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Chinese women were generally excluded from direct
participation in mainstream Chinese ritual culture, which revolved around
ancestral veneration within a patrilineal kinship structure. Women did,
however, participate in a rich festival life and the private worship of
particular deities. Women also played a central role in Chinese lamentation
culture, specifically bridal and funeral laments. Chinese lamentation culture
has been little explored by Chinese and Western scholars. This paper is based on
fieldwork in Nanhui, a coastal county south east of Shanghai.
Scholarship on Chinese bridal laments has focused on the expression of female
grievances and the extent to which this reflects a resistance to Confucian
orthodoxies. Based on a comprehensive study of one entire Chinese bridal
lamentation cycle, the first attempted in the West, the author will argue that
bridal laments involve much more than the expression of female grievances and
can be considered as a striking example of the performative and ritual power of
Chinese women.
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