Domesticated Deities and Auspicious Emblems
- Chinese Popular Culture Project
About the Author
Po Sung-nien (Bo Songnian ???) is a former graduate and current member of the faculty at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. He was the Chinese Popular Culture Project's Senior Residential Fellow in 1990-1991, when he curated the exhibition Domesticated Deities and Auspicious Emblems from his personal collection. He is the author of several Chinese-language books of the history of painting in China and the history of New Year's prints.
David G. Johnson is professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include premodern China and traditional Chinese popular culture. He is the co-author of Domesticated Deities and Auspicious Emblems (IEAS, 1992) and the author of Spectacle and Sacrifice: The Ritual Foundations of Village Life in North China (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Education: A.B. at Harvard College; Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley
Table of Contents
Preface—7
Introduction—9
Explanatory Note—19
Iconic Prints: The Gods of the Chinese Peasant Family
The Stove God—23
The Gods of Wealth—60
Other Gods—66
Pantheons and Ancestors—84
Buddhist Deities—96
Mimetic Prints and Papercuts
Door Gods and Door Prints—105
Chung K'uei—136
Auspicious Prints—148
Instructive Prints—162
Opera Prints—171
The Mouse's Wedding—181
Papercuts—191
Select Bibliography—205
Glossary—206
Reviews
"This is a lovely and instructive volume. I wish only that it did not mark one of the last activities of a fine project."—Stephan Feuchtwang, City University, Asian Folklore Studies 53. no. 1 (1994): 180-182
"The book is a wonderful resource for the student of Chinese cultural history, for it provides a close reading of a wealth of familiar everyday life symbols....The authors also give us a good sense of the spread of woodblock prints in China by pointing out their provenances and by naming their printmaking shops."—Chang-tai Hung, Carleton College, The Journal of Asian Studies 52, no. 4 (Nov. 1993): 987-989
