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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
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Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
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Films
found one film
Keywords
“Festivals Carnival”
x
Series
“Song Family Village”
x
Year of production
“2009”
x
films with a digital version
1
short films
1
Region
Central Asia and Far East
1
Country
China
1
Keywords
Collective / Community identity
1
Family / Kinship
1
Festivals / Carnival
1
x
Ritual
1
Directors
Rousso-Schindler, Steven
1
Seaman, Gary
1
Song, Zhifang
1
Series
Song Family Village
1
x
Country of production
China
1
United States
1
Year of production
2009
1
x
Film
The Secret of the Stone
2009
39
‘
Directed by
Zhifang Song
Gary Seaman
Steven Rousso-Schindler
.
Located on the North China Plain about 200 miles south of Beijing, ‘Song Family Village’ is home to about 1,300 people. Some 80% of all villagers are members of a single lineage of the Song surname. The film documents New Year’s customs to demonstrate the segmentary structure of the Song family lineage. Ancestor temples provide the focus for collective rituals that express historical growth and subsequent fissioning into lineage segments. Minimal segments (Wufu or mourning groups) are shown as interaction groups focused on the household shrines of senior living agnates. Although the Communist-led Cultural Revolution tried to eliminate traditional kin-based institutions, this film shows that segmentary lineages are still a vigorous aspect of life in this North China village.
Central Asia and Far East
Family / Kinship
Collective / Community identity
Ritual
Festivals / Carnival