Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China
"Adam Yuet Chau's book provides an engaging and accessible account of Chinese popular religion in Longwanggou, a community in rural northern Shaanxi, focusing on its Black Dragon King Temple .... This book is a major achievement: an important and accessible contribution to the literature of religion in China today that deserves to be widely read."—Charles Stafford,Journal of Asian Studies"More than an ethnographic case study on the revival of a local temple cult in Northern China,Miraculous Responseis an intellectually stimulating engagement with the anthropological approach to Chinese local society, politics, and religion... Clearly written, with an engaging personal touch,Miraculous Responseis an important contribution at several levels: it provides a detailed local case study of contemporary state-religion relations, describes the complex dynamics at work in rural elite politics in the post-Mao era, and provides a feast of new concepts and insights of broader relevance to anthropological history."—China Review International"[Chau] suggests that the first key to... the religious revival in rural China is that village cadres seized upon temples and temple associations as a valuable political, economic, and symbolic resource.  The second key is the incorporation of different local state agents who are motivated for reasons other than religiosity to make alliances with temple associations and temple bosses.  In this regard,Miraculous Responsesheds unique light on the shifting state-society relationship in China."—Journal of Chinese Religions"Anthropologist Adam Chau's ethnographic account of the recent revival of popular religion in rural northern Shaanxi Province in China is a delightful book that is clearly written and highly recommended for undergraduate courses in anthropology, Asian stu"This well-written and clearly organized study is a fascinating ethnography, a rare glimpse into the workings of a popular religious temple in contemporary China.  Based on recent fieldwork in northwest China, it will appeal to readers with an interest in