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| THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE POLITICS OF VILLAGE'S SACRED SPACE IN THE CONTEXT OF URBANIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE ANCESTRAL HALL IN A VILLAGE, GUANGZHOU |
| YUAN Zhen-jie1,2, GAO Quan2, HUANG Wen-wei3 |
1. Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, Asia Institute, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia;
2. Center for Social and Cultural Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China;
3. School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China |
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Abstract Over the past two decades, the ‘new’ geography of religion has kept focusing on the negotiation between sacred and secular spaces. Aiming to reveal the reconstruction of sacredness of sacred space and the tension between sacred and secular in the context of China's rapid social and political transformations, this article took the ancestral hall in A village, a traditional village which is under urban village reconstruction in Guangzhou city, as a case study, analyzing the interrelations between villagers' everyday life and the construction of the political meaning of their sacred space, the ancestral hall. By implementing field observations and the in-depth interviews, we find that, 1) the political nature of the ancestral hall in A village derived from villagers' everyday practices in such sacred space. 2) facing the secular oppression by the local government and a real-estate company, villagers utilized the ‘tactical resistance’ to speak back by carrying out some ‘tricks’ to bring damages to the dominant in the context of specific time-space. Conse. 3) the ’tactical resistance‘ presented both the active political roles that villagers played and their weak positions and limitations in the political negotiation with secular power. 4) in the context of urban village reconstruction, the respect and protection for sacred spaces should be taken into consideration in not only the consequences like restoring or rebuilding specific sacred spaces, but the whole process of the reconstruction.
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Received: 03 August 2015
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2016, Vol. 31 
