Donald S. Sutton

This book is the first long-term study of the cultural politics of the Sino-Tibetan frontier. Combining historical research and fieldwork, Xiaofei Kang and Donald Sutton examine northern Sichuan from early Ming through Communist revolution to the age of global tourism, tracing relationships and mutual influence among Tibetans, Chinese, Hui Muslims, Qiang and others over some 600 years. Their focus is on the old Chinese garrison city of Songpan and the nearby pilgrimage center of Huanglong, or Yellow Dragon. Declining to isolate religious from other social and political expressions, they demonstrate that in its many forms—popular and official, scriptural and unwritten, monastic, priestly and shamanic, personal and informal—religion has long been crucial in imagining, constructing and manipulating local social relations on this frontier. Bon and Buddhist sects sustained communities among Tibetan or proto-Tibetan populations; and Daoism and Chinese Buddhism (and for some, Islam) helped to establish frontier identities in a diverse population of migrants and soldiers. The Chinese state has contended with, exploited and at times tried to extinguish the soft power of religion in its long effort to dominate this region and (more recently) push it towards modernity. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title Winner for 2016 in the anthropology category

Winner of the 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award This book is the first long-term study of the Sino-Tibetan borderland. It traces relationships and mutual influence among Tibetans, Chinese, Hui Muslims, Qiang and others over some 600 years, focusing on the old Chinese garrison city of Songpan and the nearby religious center of Huanglong, or Yellow Dragon. Combining historical research and fieldwork, Xiaofei Kang and Donald Sutton examine the cultural politics of northern Sichuan from early Ming through Communist revolution to the age of global tourism, bringing to light creative local adaptations in culture, ethnicity and religion as successive regimes in Beijing struggle to control and transform this distant frontier.

Despite Taiwan's rise as an economic force in the world, modernity has not led to a Weberian process of disenchantment or curbed religiosity. To the contrary, other factors—social, economic, political—have stimulated religion. How and why this has happened are central issues in this book. One part of Taiwan's flourishing religious culture is the elaborate and colorful procession of local gods accompanied by troupes of musicians and dancers. Among them are performers with outlandishly painted faces portraying underworld generals who serve the gods and punish the living. Through their performances, these troupes claim to exorcise harmful forces from the community. In conducting fieldwork among these troupes, Donald Sutton confronted their claims to a long history—when all evidence indicated that the troupes had been insignificant until the 1970s—and their assertions of devotion to tradition given the diversity of performances. Concentrating on the stylistic variations in performances, the author describes the troupes as organizations shaped by the "market forces" of supply and demand in the culture of religious festivals. By focusing on performances as the nexus of market and art, he shows how bodily performance is the site where religious statements are made and the power of the gods made visible.