SCP0010.1177/0037768617747506Social CompassHuang: How Chinese Pentecostals engage in mnemonic practices 747506research-article2018l social compass Article Social Compass 2018, Vol. 65(1) 79 –96 Restoring religion through © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: collective memory: How sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768617747506DOI: 10.1177/0037768617747506 Chinese Pentecostals engage journals.sagepub.com/home/scp in mnemonic practices after the Cultural Revolution Ke-hsien HUANG National Taiwan University, Taiwan Abstract China has experienced remarkable religious revivals since the Cultural Revolution. I argue that the revivals rely on religious elites summoning collective memory to restore religion, among other factors. In addition, a micro-level perspective is taken, to see how collective memory, more than a group’s collective representation, is the product and resources of religious elites in pursuit of their own interest; the remembrance of the sacred past is a contested, unfolding process of key actors engaging in varied mnemonic practices. Through data collected from long-term fieldwork, I demonstrate how Chinese Pentecostals, after lengthy political suppression, use religious collective memory to rebuild the national community, strengthen the leadership by proving their orthodox character, and fight against mystical separatists. In conclusion, I explain why religious collective memory matters in the case of China in particular, where the state tends to repress religious institutionalization, and Chinese people emphasize the importance of orthodoxy lineage. Keywords Christianity in China, collective memory, mnemonic practices, Pentecostalism, True Jesus Church Corresponding author: Ke-hsien Huang, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. Email:
[email protected] 80 Social Compass 65(1) Résumé La Chine a connu des renouveaux religieux marquants après la Révolution culturelle.