ABSTRACT
This research is focused on the changing roles of wedding rituals from early modern China to the contemporary modern world. Wedding ritual, especially the ritual of ‘obstruction’ in Gouliang Miao (Hmong) village in Fenghuang town, West Hunan Tujia and Miao Minority Autonomous Prefecture, was interpreted in different cultural contexts, forming a different relationship with the state. Travelling through different national discourses on ritual in three stages of modern China, namely the Qing dynasty (early modern), the modern state (1910s–late 1970s) and post-reform China (1978–), wedding ritual in Gouliang village takes on different practices. The meanings of ritual are fluid with transforming discourses. What is the meaning of wedding ritual when it is transformed into the nature of other people, feudal superstition, cultural resources, the object of tourists’ gaze and the heritage product? What is the role of wedding ritual in the locals’ contemporary life when ethnic tourism and heritage industry gradually penetrate into the village? What is the role of the state in transforming wedding ritual practices? Guided by these questions, this chapter explores diversified meanings of traditional wedding ritual in a transforming process of national discourses and needs.
