The Legitimacy of Miaohui and the Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Myth: A Field Study of the Transformation of Myths in Contemporary China

A talk at UCLA by Yang Lihui (Beijing Normal University)

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
UCLA 11377 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies

Scholars usually pay attention to the classical myths recorded thousand of years ago in ancient China, while often neglect those myths that spread in contemporary China. Professor Yang’s paper investigates the questions of why the Chinese still tell those old myths today, how mythtellers actively utilize myth in the current social life, and how the transformation of myth relates to the social and cultural change  in contemporary China?

Professor Yang’s paper is based fieldwork in two villages concerning miaohui (lit. temple get togethers):  events in which people come together at a certain date (sometimes a miaohui begins at a certain date and lasts for several days or even one or two months) to worship the god(s) in temples.

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Yang Lihui, is Professor of Folklore and Mythology, Institute of Folklore and Cultural Anthropology, Beijing Normal University. She has been a Research Associate of Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, Indiana University (2000-2001), and is currently a Associate of the Harvard-Yeching Institue, Harvard University (2006-7). Here main research interests are Chinese folklore, mythology, and popular religion.

For more information please contact
Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 825-8683
gunde@ucla.edu