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H. Studies on Jiao festivals in Mainland China & Taiwan
One of the most striking indicators of the revival of the traditional religious activities which were labeled as "feudal superstition" and prohibited in China after 1949 is the reappearance of the large scale Jiao festival in southern China. According to Dean, small scale religious activities were secretly practised by some small villages in Fujian during the Cultural Revolution. Large scale Jiao celebrations were seen in many parts of southern China only after 1980, the decade following the fall of the "gang of four." Dean's study in Fujian is one of the pioneering studies of the revival of Jiao festivals in mainland China. In his paper Dean asked whether or not the revival of Jiao festivals will lead to the restoration of local tradition and eventually encourage local autonomy. This, according to Dean, "only time will tell."
Records of Jiao festivals on the mainland are very limited but Jiao festivals in Taiwan have been widely studied since the 1960s. One of the earliest systematic studies is Liu Zhi-wan's ethnographical account of the 1963 Jiao festival in Song Shan, Taipei. Though severely criticized by Li, the study successfully drew the attention of many scholars to the study of such festivals. Besides descriptive ethnography, two approaches should be mentioned here. One looks at the Jiao festival from its religious and symbolic significance. Li Xian-zhang pointed out in 1968 that the Jiao in ancient China was a "rite of transition." Saso suggested that the Jiao is a rite of cosmic renewal closely related to the theory of Yin and Yang. He wrote "[Jiao] is to restore Yang, that is, life, light, and blessing, to its pristine state of growth, and to expel the forces of Yin, darkness, evil, and death." Saso's theory was adopted by many scholars to define the Jiao festival. For instance, Ward wrote that objectives of the Jiao festival are the wiping away of evil, the restoration of peace, and the renewal of life for the entire population and of a sizable group of villages.
Another approach studies the festival from its social aspects. It focuses on the organizing community's internal structure and its relationship with a larger society. Okada's studies on "religious area" were done in the 1930s. They argue that the religious area is an area in which people interact through common religious activities which focus on a temple or a religious object. A religious area is also a sphere of social life which may coincide with marketing or marriage areas. The festival is seen as a mechanism to consolidate or to re-confirm
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H. Studies on Jiao festivals in Mainland China & Taiwan
One of the most striking indicators of the revival of the traditional religious activities which were labeled as "feudal superstition" and prohibited in China after 1949 is the reappearance of the large scale Jiao festival in southern China. According to Dean, small scale religious activities were secretly practised by some small villages in Fujian during the Cultural Revolution. Large scale Jiao celebrations were seen in many parts of southern China only after 1980, the decade following the fall of the "gang of four**." Dean's study in Fujian is one of the pioneering studies of the revival of Jiao festivals in mainland China. In his paper Dean asked whether or not the revival of Jiao festivals will lead to the restoration of local tradition and eventually encourage local autonomy. This, according to Dean, "only time will tell*.7
Records of Jiao festivals on the mainland are very limited but Jiao festivals in Taiwan have been widely studied since the 1960s. One of the earliest systematic studies is Liu Zhi-wan's ethnographical account of the 1963 Jiao festival in Song Shan, Taipei." Though severely criticized by Li," the study successfully drew the attention of many scholars to the study of such festivals. Besides descriptive ethnography. two approaches should be mentioned here. One looks at the Jiao festival from its religious and symbolic significance. Li Xian-zhang pointed out in 1968 that the Jiao in ancient China was a "rite of transition"."" Saso suggested that the Jiao is a rite of cosmic renewal closely related to the theory of Yin and Yang. He wrote "[Jiao] is to restore Yang, that is, life, light, and blessing, to its pristine state of growth, and to expell the forces of Yin, darkness, evil, and death"." Saso's theory was adopted by many scholars to define the Jiao festival. For instance, Ward wrote that objectives of the Jiao festival are the wiping away of evil, the restoration of peace, and the renewal of life for the entire population and of a sizable group of villages".
Another approach studies the festival from its social aspects. It focuses on the organizing community's internal structure and its relationship with a larger society. Okada's studies on "religious area" were done in the 1930s." They argue that the religious area is an area in which people interact through common religious activities which focus on a temple or a religious object. A religious area is also a sphere of social life which may coincide with marketing or marriage areas. The festival is seen as a mechanism to consolidate or to re-confirm
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