Ritual, in bearing the intent of perpetual iteratibility, offers the possibility of a veneer of continuity in the face of historical, cultural, and political ruptures. Hence the title of Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern's volume—Asian Ritual Systems: Syncretisms and Ruptures.

Although the book purports to address ritual systems in Asia, most of the contributors write about the Chinese world of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong—with one sole exception, which is on Buddhism in India. While the editors have tried to introduce a comparative perspective by interjecting materials from Papua New Guinea in both the introduction and epilogue, the geographic mainstay remains Chinese East Asia.

That said, the contributions to the book are highly eclectic, both in terms of historical time frames and, more importantly, what constitutes ritual. The chapters range from discussions of imperial rituals under Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1125) of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), to Christian conversions in late nineteenth-century South China, to the current revival of local religious traditions in a China that has embraced a market economy.

Without engaging in a debate on what constitutes ritual, the book considers a wide variety of contexts in which rituals are practiced. There are chapters devoted to conventional religious rituals, such as the exorcistic procession of deities and spirit-writing found in Chinese folk religion. There are also chapters that consider state rituals, such as the Taoism-inflected imperial rituals of Huizong and the rituals embedded in the 1997 reunion of Hong Kong and China. There is an intriguing chapter that addresses the bow as a fundamental aspect of ritualistic practice signifying obeisance. Hence, rituals can be examined as religious or (semi)secular, or even constituted as segments of bodily postures that inform subjectivity.

One of the strengths of the book is its consciousness of the larger sociopolitical contexts in which rituals are embedded. Here, rituals interface with politics and cultural memory in ways that reproduce the present. Michael Szonyi's chapter speaks of the Jinmen archipelago as a contested political space between China and Taiwan at the height of the Cold War. Thus, when a nude female body washed ashore on one of the islands, her sexuality became politicized as her deification came to be understood in terms of a commemoration of perseverance against invasive action by Communist soldiers. As the Jinmen islands were opened to tourism with the waning of the Cold War, memory of the Communist threat was eclipsed as the deity's temple became a mere node in the local tourist economy. In Philip Clart's chapter on Chinese morality books authored through spirit-writing, the sad plight of historical villains in their afterlives became a testament that harsh justice would be meted out to those who threatened the integrity of China. Through such appropriation of historical figures in religio-historical narratives, society's normative structure is reaffirmed in the face of political and social anomie, thus articulating a sense of continuity where rupture threatens.

In addition, some chapters examine the interface between ritual and the subject. I have already mentioned the bow as semiotic practice, discussed in Eric Reinders's chapter in the context of Buddhist monks and British Protestants refusing to bow to the emperor. Debates revolved around who should be bowed to, the specific depth of the bow, and whether physical action could represent inner feelings of respect unambiguously. The constitution of the subject through ritual is explored along another vector in Marc Moskowitz's depiction of the rise and fall of a Daoist master and his cult. In this case, Moskowitz examines the intersections of magical efficacy and morality in the definition of the subject's faith.

The pursuit of all these diverse threads in the same volume, while gratifying at times, also makes one wonder where the volume is heading. The different aspects of ritual that are highlighted, taken separately, could merit their own volumes. On the other hand, while most chapters deal with religion, not all explicitly indicate the importance of ritual in their discussions. For example, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee's chapter demonstrates how the conversion of Chaozhou rural communities to Christianity reproduced existing kinship and lineage structures in the context of waning Chinese imperial hegemony, but does not address the role of ritual in mediating such social-ideological ruptures.

This volume is not tailored toward making a thematic impact, but it throws up interesting nuggets if one is willing to mine carefully. For me, one particular highlight is the role of music in rituals, which has often been neglected in studies of ritual and religion. For example, Yu Siu Wah gives a nuanced reading of how ritual music embedded in the handover of Hong Kong to China reflected Beijing's increasing assumption of authority over the city-state. Joseph Lam's description of how Emperor Huizong developed his musical insignia on court and state rituals also points to the nexus between ritual, music, and political authority. However, the role of music goes beyond pronouncing the shifting notes of power. Inasmuch as ritual is performative, the aural aspect of ritual is integral to regulating the rhythm of the performance. This, and other aspects of ritual, will have to be pursued in other volumes.