Life After Death Today in the United States, Japan, and China

199 Pages·2023·4.134 MB·English

by  Gordon Mathews, Yang Yang, Miu Ying Kwong

LIFE AFTER DEATH TODAY IN THE
UNITED STATES, JAPAN, AND CHINA
This book is about contemporary senses of life after death in the United States,
Japan, and China.
By collecting and examining hundreds of interviews with people from all
walks of life in these three societies, this book presents and compares personally
held beliefs, experiences, and interactions with the concept of life after death.
Three major aspects covered by the book include, but are certainly not lim-
ited to, the enduring tradition of Japanese ancestor veneration, China’s tran-
sition from state-sponsored materialism to the increasing belief in some form
of afterlife, and the diversity in senses of, or disbelief in, life after death in the
United States. Through these diverse frst-hand testimonies, the book reveals
that underlying these changes in each society there is a shift from collective to
individual belief, with people developing their own visions of what may, or may
not, happen after death.
This book will be valuable reading for students of Anthropology as well as
Religious, Cultural, Asian, and American Studies. It will also be an impactful
resource for professionals such as doctors, nurses, and hospice workers.
Gordon Mathews is a Professor in the Dept. of Anthropology at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
Yang Yang has an M.Phil. degree in Anthropology from the Chinese Univer-
sity of Hong Kong.
Miu Ying Kwong has an M.Phil. degree in Anthropology from the Chinese
University of Hong Kong and has written her thesis on senses of life after death
in south China.

LIFE AFTER DEATH
TODAY IN THE
UNITED STATES, JAPAN,
AND CHINA
Gordon Mathews, Yang Yang,
and Miu Ying Kwong
Designed cover image: Getty Images – xijian
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Gordon Mathews, Yang Yang and Miu Ying Kwong
The right of Gordon Mathews, Yang Yang and Miu Ying Kwong to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-34502-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-34503-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-32246-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003322467
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
To the late Yoshida Shigeru, who brought Mathews to Japan in
1980, and, of course, to Yoko, to whom he owes everything.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Authors xi
1 Senses of Life After Death Past and Present 1
2 The United States: Life After Death in a Christian/
Post-Christian Nation 35
3 Japan: The Strictures of Life Before Death and the
Freedom of Life After Death 75
4 China: The Loss of a This-World Utopia, and the Lure of
a World Beyond 114
5 Life After Death/Life Before Death and Their Linkages 154
Index 181

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are deeply thankful to our interviewees in all three societies, who told us
about one of the most deeply private aspects of their lives: their senses of what
they think may happen to them after they die. Thank you so much to the people
in the United States, Japan, and China who so generously opened up their lives
to us. For ethical reasons, we cannot identify you, but we are profoundly grateful
to you: you have made this book possible.
We also thank Lynne Nakano, Reijiro Aoyama, and Steve Derné, who read
earlier drafts of this book and helped to make it better. Susanne Klien accom-
panied Mathews on a number of his Japanese interviews and provided useful
analytic advice. We particularly thank this book’s referees, William Jankowiak
and Hikaru Suzuki, who subsequently identifed themselves, for ofering such
astute criticisms, and again, helping to make this a better book through their
critique. This book’s remaining faws are of course the fault of its three authors,
particularly Mathews.