Why read The Temple of Memories?

Book cover of The Temple of Memories: History, Power, and Morality in a Chinese Village

Book description

This study focuses on the politics of memory in the village of Dachuan in northwest China, in which 85 percent of the villagers are surnamed Kong and believe themselves to be descendants of Confucius. It recounts both how this proud community was subjected to intense suffering during the Maoist era,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Temple of Memories as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alexander F. Robertson

Author

On a cold winter night in 1960 the families of Dachuan village were forced out of their homes to make way for the waters of a huge new dam. Some managed to retrieve a few bones from the family graves to take to their new homes. But the ancestral temple that had been at the heart of village life and identity for centuries was lost to the rising waters.

For decades Maoist policy suppressed all religious expression in China, but the reforms of the 1980s saw many forms of religious revival, including the triumphant reconstruction of Dachuan’s Confucius temple, its…

From Alexander's list on village lives as keys to history.