ABSTRACT
In this introductory chapter, Chapter 1 tells the story of the importance of ancestor and ancestor worship by the Chinese from the Diaspora Chinese and the Mainland Chinese universes, with the latter including the Mainland China state. It opens with a brief definition of the Diaspora Chinese and Mainland Chinese universes and a discussion of the social interconnectivity among the different groups of Chinese from the Diaspora and Mainland China as they have traversed the migration and transnational circuit. This is followed by an exploration of the roles played by the Diaspora Chinese and the social connections between these two groups of Chinese in the performance of communal ancestor worship in the emigrant ancestral village as they acknowledge their shared ancestors. This chapter also examines the generational divide and the parallel movements between the first, second, and subsequent generations of Diaspora Chinese and Mainland Chinese, resulting in diverging interpretations and practices of ancestor worship within their own universe. Finally, this chapter advances the framework of a collaborative cultural basin that contains selected Chinese cultural elements of which ancestors and ancestor worship are included in the basin and embraced by the Diaspora Chinese and the Mainland Chinese.
