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- Title
Rethinking the "Magic State" in China: Political Imagination and Magical Practice in Rural Beijing.
- Authors
XING WANG
- Abstract
This paper discusses the local imagination of the Chinese state in rural Beijing using ethnographic evidence. In particular, it examines the process by which the state is internalized in people's lives through local magical practices and collective memories of traditional rituals, geomancy, and spirit possessions. I argue that the magical aspect of the Chinese state in people's imagination denies an understanding of a magic state as the alternative for a violent and hegemonic reality for the state. In this sense, the Chinese popular perception of the state challenges the established concept of the state as the consequence of an elitist discussion and definition, and at the same time also challenges the national discourse. Furthermore, magical practices and beliefs in rural Beijing in relation to the local comprehension of the Chinese state show that in many cases, the state is considered as powerless.
- Subjects
BEIJING (China); ETHNOLOGY; RITES &; ceremonies; GEOMANCY; MAGIC; IMAGINATION
- Publication
Asian Ethnology, 2018, Vol 77, Issue 1/2, p331
- ISSN
1882-6865
- Publication type
Article