ABSTRACT
This chapter examines religious reproduction in the qiaoxiang, focusing on the centrality of Qingshui zushigong; the revival of religious fairs and the implications for the lineage identity of Singapore and village Chinese. Chinese religious orthodoxy can be seen as consisting of two structures, the ritual and the ideological. Both remain important in Chinese culture. In rural China there was formerly very little flow of information, including that concerning the existence of other gods and deities than those already known. By the early 1950s, the number of recent migrants from Anxi to Singapore had grown substantially. To organize a big communal religious fair requires trust and co-operation among the organizers, a fact attested to by both Singapore and Anxi Chinese. In the village world, where religion and overt religious practices were suppressed for several decades, the sudden revival of communal religious fairs and large-scale worshipping brought about mixed feelings and confusion for some.
