My 2015 film Li Manshan: portrait of a folk Daoist (which complements my book Daoist priests of the Li family) is an intimate evocation of the Li family Daoists (next London screening here!).

In a field where silent inanimate publications vastly outnumber audio-visual documentation, for further background on ritual life in Yanggao it’s also worth watching my earlier DVD Doing things (办事, widespread parlance for “performing rituals”), which comes with my 2007 book Ritual and music of north China: shawm bands in Shanxi. For “doing things”, note Catherine Bell’s fine survey of ritual studies.

Apart from the shawm bands (notably the Hua family band: the magnificent suite in §C of the DVD is analysed here), this film also contains many interesting scenes of funerals and temple fairs in Yanggao from as far back as 1991, including not only the Li family Daoists but also

• Li Yuan‘s Daoist band
• Rituals such as Fetching Water (for both funerals and temple fairs), Burning the Treasuries, Transferring Offerings, and the burial procession
• Raising the Pennant, and Judgment and Alms, at the 2003 Lower Liangyuan temple fair
• A nocturnal yankou ritual performed by Buddhist monks
• The Gushan temple fair, with Daoists and sectarians
• pop music at funerals and temple fairs (cf. here, and here).

And while I’m here, don’t forget the DVD Notes from the yellow earth with my Ritual and music of north China, vol.2: Shaanbei—a vivid complement to the book and my series of posts on Shaanbei!

Both volumes are now in paperback…