The Geopower of Air and Fire: a Cultural Geography of Fiery Rituals in China

Fiery rituals are a longstanding tradition across the globe, in which people can participate in a unique atmosphere linking them with natural or spiritual forces. However, in the context of climate change, the abhorrence of carbon emissions in mainstream ecological and economic thinking has precipitated the disappearance of such traditions. Especially in China, fireworks with a history of over 1,300-years and other related fiery rituals (e.g. fire dragons dance) are gradually vanishing in cities due to stringent environmental policies.

Such traditions with profound socio-cultural implications have been rarely discussed in cultural geography. Moreover, in contemporary cultural geography, there is still a lack of dialogue between Chinese philosophies of air and fire and Western elemental philosophies emerging from Ancient Greek traditions. This project responds to these developments by drawing on geographical discourse on fire, air and fiery rituals to better account for these rituals in non-Western contexts, exploring how they are produced, experienced and governed. Specifically, I will address four questions:

1. How do the elemental philosophies manifested in Chinese fiery rituals differ from, and relate to Western philosophies of air and fire? 2. How are different fiery rituals performed and experienced by local communities in Chaoshan Area, China? 3. How do these fiery rituals challenge mainstream discourses and the governance of atmospheric carbon emissions?

4. How can elemental and cultural geography discourses learn and benefit from this study of fiery rituals?

Using interviews and creative methods with local participants, I will produce a site-based ethnography of the fiery rituals in Chaoshan Area, China. Three different fiery rituals will be included: city-scale fireworks displays; community-scale fire dragon dances; family-scale burning kilns. By doing so, this project will decolonise the Euro-centric metaphysics that dominates current Western geographies, and provide novel knowledge of the tensions between fiery rituals and mainstream environmental policies.