This talk investigates several plays in the Ming court repertoire on the demons Erlang and Nezha, and explores how sensations of sound, smell, and sight define natural communities of demons that are place specific, and how these same perceptual sensations signal the crossing of boundaries that are meant to segregate demons and grant them territorial autonomy. The processes of quelling of these aggressive demons have a historical lineage in folk myth and local cults, and the plays reflect the ways in which the Chinese state controlled local cults by incorporating them into state-sanctioned religious ritual, and appropriating their local power for state interests.

Stephen West is a Foundation Professor of Chinese at Arizona State University and professor emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley. His original research interests are in Chinese performance literature and cultural history of the 11th-14th century. While these may not seem particularly “global” in nature, in fact many of the features considered to be marks of modernity appear in Chinese society at this time as features of a society undergoing rapid urbanization, an explosion of print media, and a rapid change in the nature of its governing class. His work has centered on texts from popular culture.