Chinese American Death Rituals

Respecting the Ancestors

Sue Fawn Chung, Priscilla Wegars

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN: 9780759114623
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Death is a topic that has fascinated people for centuries. In the English-speaking world, eulogies in poetic form could be traced back to the 1640s, but gained prominence with the "graveyard school" of poets in the eighteenth century often stressing the finality of death. Chinese American Death Rituals examines Chinese American funerary rituals and cemeteries from the late nineteenth century until the present in order to understand the importance of Chinese funerary rites and their transformation through time. The authors in this volume discuss the meaning of funerary rituals and their normative dimension and the social practices that have been influenced by tradition. Shaped by individual beliefs, customs, religion, and environment, Chinese Americans have resolved the tensions between assimilation into the mainstream culture and their strong Chinese heritage in a variety of ways. This volume expertly describes and analyzes Chinese American cultural retention and transformation in rituals after death.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 “What We Didn’t Understand”: A History of Chinese Death Ritual in China and California
• 2 On Dying American: Cantonese Rites for Death and Ghost-Spirits in an American City
• 3 Archaeological Excavations at Virginiatown’s Chinese Cemeteries
• 4 Venerate These Bones: Chinese American Funerary and Burial Practices as Seen in Carlin, Elko County, Nevada
• 5 Respecting the Dead: Chinese Cemeteries and Burial Practices in the Interior Pacific Northwest
• 6 Remembering Ancestors in Hawai‘i
• 7 The Chinese Mortuary Tradition in San Francisco Chinatown
• 8 Old Rituals in New Lands: Bringing the Ancestors to America
• Bibliography
• About the Contributors