Editor’s introduction: Interpreting Sinitic heritage ethnography and identity in China and Southeast Asia

Abstract

This special issue seeks to explore shifting dimensions of implicit, adopted, or imposed Chinese ethnicity with regard to contemporary ritual and performance traditions in China and Southeast Asia. The introductory article addresses recent issues within the framework of scholarly debates known as “critical Han studies” and “Sinophone studies,” which seek to deconstruct conventional understandings of “Chineseness” within China and the diaspora. Ritual and performance traditions are often overlooked as factors in the formation of ethnic identities. However, they offer a rich domain for examining local inflections of being “Chinese” or, in some cases, resisting being “Chinese.” Conventional vie..