Reconfiguring ideology: embodying China's new concepts of heritage in commemorative rituals

In 2006 China's State Council issued a list of intangible cultural heritage properties earmarked for protection. This list includes nine major 'sacrificial commemorative ceremonies' (Chinese: jidian, also more narrowly translatable as 'memorial rituals'), some of which are either new or reinterpreted revivals. This project will study these commemorative ceremonies and the sites at which these regular memorial rituals have been revived and instituted to determine how a traditionally inflected contemporary Chinese identity is being formulated at both the national and local levels.