ABSTRACT
Following from Chapter 3, this chapter specifically explores the different homes where the ancestor’s soul is housed. It begins by explaining that prior to the 1978 Open Door policy, ancestors in the emigrant villages in Mainland China were not openly worshipped. As such, they were reduced to wandering spirits and these rituals were not performed to return them to their original status as ancestors. It then explores the global Diaspora Chinese and their obligation to their ancestors. This has resulted in the establishment of choices of multiple homes for a small selected group of global Diaspora Chinese ancestors who have an ancestral soul tablet placed in their Diaspora Chinese home and another “split ancestral soul tablet” placed in the ancestral village in Mainland China where it rests on the domestic altar and/or in the sub-lineage branch memorial hall/lineage memorial hall. As such, this small group of ancestral souls has dual spiritual homes. The chapter further examines and concludes that the lineage ancestral house is a socio-ritual conurbia within the Mainland ancestral village environment that provides an opportunity for the Diaspora and Mainland Chinese to interact through ritual performances.
