The paper is extracted from Yushuang’s thesis for the degree of M.Phil. in anthropology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It presents a later version of the grave-relative relationships that she wrote for her first-year paper at Hopkins. Her FYP mainly dealt with practices related to grave-tending and the interpersonal interactions around these practices in the late Qing Jiangnan area with a larger concern about the state-society relationship in the closing decades of imperial China.

The paper being presented also examines rural-urban interactions from a perspective of funerals and death, while its focus has been narrowed to a single village lying to the southwest of the Hangzhou urban area. The village was a popular burial place for urban dwellers in late imperial (for instance, Ding Bing, one of the main historical figures that she discussed in her FYP), Republican, Maoist and early reform era. Since the 1950s, the villagers have been alienated from their history by government projects to relocate graves and urbanize the village. She argues that the village’s historically close association with funerals and burial has shaped its social relations, patterns of governance, and landscapes today.

The East Asian Studies Graduate Seminar is a bi-weekly meeting, the main purpose of which is to offer a space for graduate students to present works-in-progress to an interdisciplinary community of faculty and graduate students. Besides presentations, we will also host a number of other events geared at intellectual and professional development for graduate students. The seminar is hybrid to accommodate our colleagues abroad and is on Mondays, 9:00-10:30 am in Gilman 300. All papers will be circulated one week in advance. If you would like to receive the zoom information or the pre-circulated paper, please contact Wesley Sampias ([email protected]).