The Fracture and Reconstruction of Guzang Festival

Guzang Festival, the oldest and most magnificent Miao festival in the Miao villages of Leigong Mountain and Moon Mountain in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, is celebrated once every 13 years, when communities get together worshiping their ancestors. It is therefore highly valued by the Miao people, and some families even exhaust their money in the gift exchange custom. This traditional culture was once forbidden because it was too “extravagant”, but after 2000, it became popular again.

This research paper will explore the reconstruction of such a fractured traditional culture by comparing literature before 2000 with after 2000. In Guzang Festival, which part has been lost, which one has been preserved, and how to bring it into full play its modern latent energy? On the anthropologically theoretical side, it involves collective memory as well as gift exchange. The act of giving gifts is the material carrier for ancestor worship and the construction and strengthening of collective memory. How the collective memory of Guzang Festival of Miao ethnic group get strengthened and consolidated, and what role the gift exchange plays practically. Furthermore, the essay tries to summarize the “total prestations” through the flow of gifts within the clans, which involve cultural and social functions.