Hsiu-Kou-Ku: The Ritual Refining of Restless Ghosts Among the Chinese of Thailand

Entertaining “Chineseness”: Chinese Singing Clubs in Contemporary Bangkok

“…The ritual-like performance, the use of Mandarin, and the singing of Chinese songs from a bygone era create what Charles Keil calls ''grooving on participation'' [Keil and Feld 1994: 151] and a culturally-sanctioned performance that resists reduction to simple structural frames of feeling or experience [Qureshi 2000]. Like all forms of diasporic Chinese cultural practice -ancestral worship, speaking Chinese, celebrating Chinese festivals, adhering to Chinese customs, eating Chinese food, speaking dialects -singing Mandarin songs is an audible, visible, and sensual aspect of the yearning of Thai-Chinese to construct themselves because they are Chinese and as dynamic but integral subjects within the Thai nationalism and its modernization project [Formoso 1996, Hill 1992. Singing Mandarin songs in clubs is just one of several authenticating strategies that appeal to certain groups within the Thai-Chinese population.…”

Meeting in the market: The constitution of seasonal, ritual, and inter-cultural time in Malaysia

“…The symbolic aspects of colour here take on particular spatial dimensions, imbuing space with their semiotic qualities, which in turn influences the experience. This very public celebration of religious and cultural life serves both as a means of expressing, yet at the same time bridging, cultural difference (see Formoso 1996). While cultural solidarity, community, and identity are reinforced by processes of public celebration, the public aspects of these celebrations provide a means through which other cultural groups gain familiarity with these practices, even if they do not participate in them.…”

The neglected side of philanthropy

“…On ghost festivals in South East Asia see Ladwig (2012). tensions informing charitable practices, especially the conflicting attitudes towards ghosts that involve as much dread and fear as pity and compassion. Formoso (1996) fittingly stresses the significance of socio-economic differences between the well-off Chinese donors and the economically weak, predominantly Thai population of hungry ghosts for understanding such charitable relations. Nonetheless, the roles unfortunate dead play as figures of fear in such exchanges remains largely unexplored with ghosts principally portrayed as passive recipients of relief efforts.…”

“…Scholars of Asian religions, particularly those focusing on East and Southeast Asia, have long been identified ghosts as 'hungry', 'pitiful' creatures, often likened to 'beggars' (Wolf 1974;Weller 1985;Formoso 1996;Kendall 2008;Feuchtwang 2010;Ladwig 2012).…”