Chinese ritual music under Mao and Deng

Studying how musicians in Chinese villages have maintained their local traditions over the turbulent course of the twentieth century may illuminate the relation of music and politics. While the rural revolution in China, and central cultural policy, are well documented, the fate of village music‐making is not. The revival of traditions in China since the 1980s may seem like some miraculous survival or a re‐imagination of the pre‐Maoist past. This article shows different assaults faced, throughout three major periods in their modern history, by ritual associations serving funerals and calendrical rituals in north Chinese villages. By contrast with some other traditions which were erased under Maoism, these associations were maintained sporadically throughout the Maoist period. Despite profound social upheavals, the meanings of funerals in rural society have remained constant enough for the associations to retain their relevance.