The Cult of the Fox

For more than five centuries, the shamanistic fox cult has attracted large portions of the Chinese population across social classes. Deemed illicit by imperial rulers and clerics and officially banned by republican and communist leaders, the fox cult has managed to survive and flourish in individual homes and community shrines throughout northern China. Xiaofei Kang examines this cult as a vibrant popular religion, exploring the manifold meanings of the fox spirit in Chinese society. Kang describes various cult practices, activities of worship, and the exorcising of fox spirits to reveal how the Chinese people have constructed their cultural and social values outside the gaze of official power and morality.