Abstract
Since 1990s, there has been a revival of ancestral worship in the coastal areas of southeast China where ancestral temples have been rebuilt and sacrificial rites restored. However, traditional patterns of worship have been changed in many ways. Take the Four Orders Temple in Chaoyang district as an example. In terms of status, the Temple is at once an officially designated historical and cultural site, a clansmen association, and a non-governmental enterprise. The organizational setup of the Temple has changed from the traditional patriarchal clan system to the modern family system. Ancestor worship in the Temple helps reunited people of the same clan to create a new clan community. Besides, the Temple allows fellow clansmen who share the family name to institute the memorial tablets of their ancestors in it so that anybody in the clan can worship. All the pattern innovations reflect a combination of the traditional and the modern.
Keywords Chaoyang, ancestral temple, sacrificial offering, ritual