Urban temples and ritual affects: communal festivals, local Gods, and development plans in modern Xiamen

This dissertation presents the first comprehensive study of communal religion in urban China based on fieldwork conducted in and around Xiamen city, a Special Economic Zone in Fujian province in the southeast of the country.The project analyzes the modern historic development in the city in relation to temples and urban infrastructure and considers the ways in which contemporary ritual events and temple organizing influence city life through different forms of spatial organization and bodily sensation.It shows the complex interaction between urban temple devotees, Daoist priests, Buddhist monastics, opera performers, and a variety of other religious performers who circulate throughout the region.Despite the destructive role urban development had on temples throughout the twentieth century, in the past thirty years the reconstruction of temples has allowed neighborhoods to organize development projects and charitable works throughout the city that would otherwise not have existed.These projects are closely connected to the perception of a god's spiritual efficacy and the experience of ritual events, which I analyze in terms of the collective affective atmospheres, individual emotional experiences, and conscious perceptions in order to present ritual as a productive social force.Rather than suggesting a decline in religious practice due to urban development and the increasing role of global capital in everyday life, I argue that rituals, as bodily and largely communal practices, hold affective capacities that have the potential to influence how people act, think, and live in the city Following the first introductory chapter, the second chapter presents the wider religious landscape of the city.Chapter three then gives a historical analysis of spatial development and infrastructure in modern Xiamen, focusing on the changing roles that temples have played in city life since the 1920s.Chapter four moves to the contemporary period to discuss different forms of neighborhoods and the relation between local organizing of charitable and infrastructure projects and the spiritual efficacy of their temple.Chapter five presents a model for conceiving of Chinese religions in terms of the circulation of ritual technologies as a way to consider the multiplicity of practices that arrange in the formation of ritual events.Chapter six analyzes the movements of urban temple devotees to the founding temples of cults in rural areas and the atmospheres of three major ritual celebrations.Finally, chapter seven addresses how people think religion more consciously and the changing language used to present local rituals, with an emphasis on the category of "intangible cultural heritage, to consider the relationship between such discourses and ritual practice.This project would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of the people I met in southern Fujian.I am indebted to them for sharing their time and experiences with me and inviting me to join in their traditions.I am also grateful for the guidance and support of my supervisor

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