Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China

Explores how villagers in the isolated areas of southeast China have attempted to restore traditional rituals and cults despite the Chinese government's suppression of religious practices. The author argues that Taoist ritual provides the structure for this religious revival.

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Most commentators imagine contemporary China to be monolithic, atheistic, and materialist, and wholly divorced from its earlier customs, but Kenneth Dean combines evidence from historical texts and extensive fieldwork to reveal an entirely different picture. Since 1979, when the Chinese government relaxed some of its most stringent controls on religion, villagers in the isolated areas of Southeast China have maintained an "underground" effort to restore traditional rituals and local cults.

Originally published in 1993.

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