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- Panel 6-3 Rice, Songs, and Vows: Women’s Food Practices, Emotions, and Ritual Agency in the Yao Ritual of Repaying King Pan’s Vow /Mei-wen Chen
Panel 6-3 Rice, Songs, and Vows: Women’s Food Practices, Emotions, and Ritual Agency in the Yao Ritual of Repaying King Pan’s Vow /Mei-wen Chen
Mei-wen Chen
Fu Jen Catholic University Department of Religious Studies, Assistant Professor
This paper focuses on women’s roles in food practices, ritual performances, and emotional expressions during the Repaying King Pan’s Vow (還盤王願) ritual, a core ancestral rite among Yao communities in Guangxi, China. Drawing on Yao ritual manuscripts and ethnographic observations, this study reveals how women—especially the Singing Mothers (歌娘)—play pivotal roles in ritual food preparation, rice wine brewing, and ceremonial singing, despite not holding formal religious office. These practices constitute what I call the “performative literacy of food,” wherein food, songs, and ritual acts are interwoven into a meaningful semiotic system. In this context, rice and rice wine serve not merely as sacrificial offerings but also as vessels carrying vows, emotional memories, and expressions of kinship. By analyzing how foodways and song performances intertwine with religious texts and ritual practices, this paper highlights how Yao women exercise cultural agency, navigate gendered religious structures, and reproduce community ties through ritual and emotional labor. This study aims to enrich the understanding of food and emotion in Yao religious life and contribute to broader discussions on ritual and food studies.
Keywords: Yao, Ritual Food, Singing Mother, Gender
Fu Jen Catholic University Department of Religious Studies, Assistant Professor
This paper focuses on women’s roles in food practices, ritual performances, and emotional expressions during the Repaying King Pan’s Vow (還盤王願) ritual, a core ancestral rite among Yao communities in Guangxi, China. Drawing on Yao ritual manuscripts and ethnographic observations, this study reveals how women—especially the Singing Mothers (歌娘)—play pivotal roles in ritual food preparation, rice wine brewing, and ceremonial singing, despite not holding formal religious office. These practices constitute what I call the “performative literacy of food,” wherein food, songs, and ritual acts are interwoven into a meaningful semiotic system. In this context, rice and rice wine serve not merely as sacrificial offerings but also as vessels carrying vows, emotional memories, and expressions of kinship. By analyzing how foodways and song performances intertwine with religious texts and ritual practices, this paper highlights how Yao women exercise cultural agency, navigate gendered religious structures, and reproduce community ties through ritual and emotional labor. This study aims to enrich the understanding of food and emotion in Yao religious life and contribute to broader discussions on ritual and food studies.
Keywords: Yao, Ritual Food, Singing Mother, Gender