Despite the coronavirus pandemic putting the world on pause, cultural communications have not been paused. This new book by Ziying You, Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning, published in 2020 by Indiana University Press, offers English-language readers a cultural journey for exploring folklore fundamentals on cultural continuity through the landscape of China. The book provides valuable insights and rich resources for folklorists, cultural scholars, and general readers in the English-speaking world to understand processes and learn about actors involved in continuing cultural traditions and heritage-making in the context of contemporary China, while also highlighting Chinese folklore scholarship in its historic progress.

This ethnographic work is situated in a few villages of Hongtong, Shanxi Province of China. Hongtong is an ideal place for research on the topic of cultural continuity as it has links to early Chinese cultural history in the Yao and Shun era, more than three thousand years ago. To explore how cultural continuity is locally processed, the author conducted this study in Hongtong county by focusing on a group of people in the community termed “folk literati.” In the book, the category of folk literati is exemplified in several outstanding individuals, including Qiao Guoliang of Yangxie, Li Xuezhi of Lishan, and Liu Baoshan of Wan’an, among others. These folk literati devoted themselves to the transmission, representation, and reconstruction of local cultural traditions, focused on a concrete local custom, “jie gugu ying niangniang,” officially titled “Hongtong zouqin xisu” (Hongtong’s custom of visiting sacred relatives) on the national intangible cultural heritage (ICH) list. The custom embodies the local histories, beliefs, narratives, and ritual festivals that connect to the early Chinese sage kings Yao and Shun, and Yao’s two daughters Ehuang and Nuying, who became Shun’s two wives. Studying the interaction between the folk literati and the zouqin tradition through field observation, interviews, and textual analysis, the author claims that folk literati play an important role in the continuity and reconstruction of local cultural tradition. This approach engages readers to speculate from a new perspective on the dynamic force of folklore in the local community.

The significance of this book to folklore studies lies in is its highlighting of the folk literati, who hold an ambiguous social status in China. On the one hand, they “are skilled in classical Chinese, knowledge of local traditions, and capable of representing them in writing ” (1). On the other hand, they do not use their literary skills to earn an official rank or a literary title, and they live as ordinary people in the community; hence, folk literati have been commonly seen as poor and unlucky literates. In the dichotomy of high culture and low culture, folk literati have been excluded not only by orthodox historians and elite literati but also by scholars in folklore studies. For example, in modern China, the term “folk literature” used to be defined as traditional oral products, orally transmitted by illiterate working-class people. According to this definition, the folk literati’s written works are not included in folk literature. But, as a matter of fact, throughout Chinese history, folk literati have been important participants, recorders, and writers of local history and culture. Their writings for local gazetteers, genealogy, and temple stele texts, and on the occasions of weddings, funerals, and festivals, consolidate the oral memory of local history and culture and promote the practice of local tradition. As the author in the book argues, “On the ground, it is folk literati and numerous other individuals who keep incense burning and keep local tradition alive. However, their role in the process of heritage making is not fully recognized by intellectuals and the state” (217). Moreover, this study “sheds light on their important role in tradition revitalization and heritage protection, making their contributions more visible and accessible” (221).

By recounting their life stories and reviewing their written works, this book shows the folk literatis’ persistence and enthusiasm in carrying on, representing, negotiating, and reconstructing local history and tradition. For example, Qiao Guoliang in Yangxie village suffered unfair treatment for insisting on the practice of the annual ritual of receiving aunts Ehuang and Nuying, but he did not give it up. Lishan’s Li Xuezhi and Wan’an’s Liu Baoshan debated on the birthplace and the Temple of Shun, and they remade narratives to solidify the connection of Shun to their hometown. These scrupulous accounts demonstrate that individual folk literati follow their own belief and understanding of history and place as they practice, represent, and remake local traditions that are outside the usual historical and political domains. Through the scrutiny of contradictions and conflicts in the narratives and ritual processions regarding Yao, Shun, Ehuang, and Nuying among local folk literati as well as ordinary villagers, this study illustrates that the continuity of tradition is a dialectical process of transmission and innovation through contestation.

Furthermore, Ziying You digs into the relationship of folk literati with local fellows, villagers, folk groups, cultural organizations, and local and state agencies in the processing of tradition and the making of heritage. The account of the application process for listing Hongtong zouqin xisu (the custom of vising sacred relatives) as national ICH takes Hongtong’s case into a larger context of state and global actors. This facet of the study discloses the fact that the process of tradition and the protection of heritage, in local practice, has been intertwined with conflicting social factions and with power relations at local and state levels that have been deeply influenced by social and political changes of Chinese society.

Another point of significance for this book is that Ziying You provides readers with a broad vision of theoretical discourse around this topic. The book presents diverse perspectives, with both etic and emic insights, and resources for researchers, drawn from both Chinese folklore studies and Western folklore studies. As a native Chinese and a person trained in both China and the US, the author enjoys the merits of using more than one language and a variety of research tools to conduct the study. For example, in discussing tradition, myth, legend, intangible cultural heritage, and literati and folk literati, Ziying You makes use not only of Western scholars’ theories and work, but also of the work of and debates among Chinese scholars, folklorists, and local folks. Interestingly, the author adopts local vernacular expressions to present local people’s ideas and interpretations of these abstract cultural concepts.

Finally, by focusing on folk literati and cultural traditions in Hongtong, Ziying You engages with a cultural dialogue that spans the local and global, the East and the West, academic and folk, and the past and the present. It allows readers to obtain a deep understanding of the interplay of individual agency and social institutions in processing tradition and making heritage in China and beyond. The book is valuable and readable, though readers may have some trouble with the many vernacular Chinese language terms in the book. Also, a map of the study area is lacking, and would serve readers as they follow this cultural journey in Hongtong.

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[Review length: 1173 words • Review posted on March 25, 2021]