The Last Lisheng: Folklorization, Forgetting, and Resistance in Rural China

This article examines the progressive disappearance of the lisheng (礼生), the traditional master of ceremonies in rural China, interpreting this phenomenon as a manifestation of a profound cultural transformation. Drawing on case studies from Sibao, Qufu, and Yanggao, it identifies three interrelated processes: the folklorization of ritual practices, institutional forgetting, and forms of strategic resistance. To analyze these dynamics, the article establishes a dialogue between Western social theory and Chinese intellectual traditions, proposing the concept of compensatory modernity — developed here in dialogue with Wang Hui´s (2016) critique of Chinese modernization — to account for the state’s and market’s attempts to replace lost forms of collective meaning once sustained by figures such as the lisheng. Their disappearance therefore raises a fundamental question about the erosion of communal meaning-making in the context of modernization.