Convenor
Gyo Miyabara
Osaka University
Abstract
This panel will focus on death, burial or cremation practices and cemeteries among Diasporic Chinese, and discuss how deterritorialized and reterritorialized migrants have formed and managed “lived space” around them in the continuum of before and after death.
Anthropological studies on Diasporic Chinese usually describe the migrant’s social world in the actuality of their lifetime experiences. However, the social world is formed based not only on their lifetime experiences but also their views on the world after death.
In the early stage of Chinese migration during the 19 th Century, after a Chinese migrant died, the corpse was temporally rested in a particular hall and sent back to his / her hometown in China by a boat for corpses periodically. For example, a transport service for corpses had been installed during 1878 to 1923 in Yokohama, Japan. This practice is based on the notion that one who died in foreign land should be buried in their own homeland in China (zu ji). We can see this practice in the 80s Hong Kong movie “Mr.Vampire” and other spin-off movies. Mr. Vampire shows us that Chinese vampires (jiang shi in Mandarin and goeng si in Cantonese) are regarded as dead persons who are not buried in proper way especially in the manner of fengsui. To lay vampires to rest in peace, a Taoist priest has to bring vampires to their homeland and bury them there.
Interestingly, this practice was not reported in the 18th century. We should examine the transportation of corpses of Diasporic Chinese in the context of the East and Southeast Asian modernization during the 19th century. The death rituals and burial practices are always changing in a geographical and historical setting. Diasporic Chinese views on space around them are also affecting on their views on death, burial practices and forms of cemeteries. In the 20th century, corpses are no longer sent back to their hometown, but bury in the settlement. Then, a burial practice declines and cremation is newly applied, while Fengsui is getting more popular than before in various Chinese settlements.
Each presenter in this panel will do a case study of such a view and a practice on death, burial, cremation, and cemetery in East and Southeast Asia, and tries to figure out the “lived space” of Diasporic Chinese in the continuum of lifetime and after death through these case studies.