ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Ke lineage ancestral house in Anxi county in Fujian to discuss its contemporary roles and significance in the social connections between the Chinese Diaspora and Mainland China. It explores the lineage ancestral house as a sociocultural space, emotional space, and gender empowerment space where the three groups of Chinese come together to perform communal ancestor worship and understand lineage identity. It also examines how the lineage ancestral house is a space of gender contestation, whereas it was traditionally a predominantly masculine space wherein the politics of manhood, seniority, status, and wealth were displayed. Today, the rise of women has led to it being contested, along with the rise of a feminine space. Finally, it is also a space of contestation among the different branches of the lineage.
