Chinese American Death Rituals: Respecting the Ancestors

Edited by Sue Fawn Chung and Priscilla Wegars.
Why is there sometimes a chicken in a Chinese funeral procession? Why are Chinese Americans bringing the remains of their ancestors to the US for reburial? Why would Chinese Americans place coins in the coffin or in the mouth, ears, hands, or eyes of their deceased? Why would they leave food at the grave site and burn paper replicas of cell phones and other objects there? Chung and Wegars and a selection of expert contributors answer these questions and more in Chinese American Death Rituals.
See a review in the Asian Reporter.

Contents:
Introduction, by Sue Fawn Chung and Priscilla Wegars;
Chapter 1, "'What We Didn’t Understand': A History of Chinese Death Ritual in China and California," by Wendy L. Rouse;
Chapter 2, "On Dying American: Cantonese Rites for Death and Ghost-Spirits in an American City," by Paul G. Chace;
Chapter 3, "Archaeological Excavations at Virginiatown’s Chinese Cemeteries," by Wendy L. Rouse;
Chapter 4, "Venerate These Bones: Chinese American Funerary and Burial Practices as Seen in Carlin, Elko County, Nevada," by Sue Fawn Chung, Fred P. Frampton, and Timothy W. Murphy;
Chapter 5, "Respecting the Dead: Chinese Cemeteries and Burial Practices in the Interior Pacific Northwest," by Terry Abraham and Priscilla Wegars;
Chapter 6, "Remembering Ancestors in Hawai'i," by Sue Fawn Chung and Reiko Neizman;
Chapter 7, "The Chinese Mortuary Tradition in San Francisco Chinatown," by Linda Sun Crowder;
Chapter 8, "Old Rituals in New Lands: Bringing the Ancestors to America," by Roberta S. Greenwood;
Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

320 pages. Pb, $35.00; if you wish it autographed, please specify recipient.
Published in 2005 by AltaMira Press.
All authors' royalties benefit the AACC.