TechnoViews #13. ‘Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China' | Andrew Kipnis (Chinese U. of Hong Kong)

Andrew KIPNIS, interviewed by Jun ZHANG and Gonçalo SANTOS on October 28, 2021

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

This podcast episode features a conversation with Andrew Kipnis on his recent work on China's changing funerary practices in the context of powerful forces of urbanization. It examines how spatial reorganization during Chinese urbanization problematized death, and how newly emerged forms of familial organization, stranger sociality, and economic restructuring were reflected in changing funerary rituals and the rise of the funerary industry. It also discusses some of the unique features of Chinese patterns of governing death and how existing frameworks of governance influence and are influenced by everyday practices of urban memorialization. Finally, it considers moral debates on the commercialization of death and the place of secularizati ...