You, Ziying: Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China. Incense is Kept Burning.Bai Yusheng

ASIEN – Nr. 168/169 (2023) pp. 196–98

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. 276 pp., ISBN 978-0-253-04636-9 (paperback).

You Ziying’s monograph investigates how various actors and institutions engage with efforts to preserve and continue cultural traditions on the ground in northern rural China. Particularly, You focuses on the important role of folk literati, “a group of people who are skilled in classical Chinese, knowledgeable of local traditions, and capable of representing them in writing” (p. 1), in the transmission and reproduction of local traditions, manifested in a vernacular expression “incense is kept burning” (“xianghuo buduan”; p. 61). The case study is around the worship of ancient sage-kings Yao and Shun, as well as Ehuang and Nüying who are Yao’s two daughters and wed Shun, situated in Hongtong County of Shanxi Province…