From: Journal of Asian and African Studies | Date: December 1, 1996| Author: Esherick, Joseph W. | COPYRIGHT 1996 E.J. Brill. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

This book's eclectic title accurately reflects its diverse subject matter, but may deflect attention from the impressive unity of its underlying argument. The substantive cases range from the origins of the Taiping rebellion, to the 1980s popularity of the Eighteen Lords temple in Taiwan (dedicated to the ghosts of seventeen men and a dog), to rituals of protest and ironic subversion of official discourse in the PRC. Despite these cases' wide separation in time, space and social cont...