My simplistic starting point – that separation and reunion are matters of great concern in China and Taiwan – has already been complicated in two significant ways. First, I suggested (in chapter one) that Chinese narratives of separation and reunion, however important and seemingly ‘timeless’, are in fact always embedded in history. This is clearly seen when state institutions explicitly intervene in their completion. I then went on to suggest (in chapter two) that the public elaboration of partings and returns in China is somewhat paradoxical: the most important relationships are often given the least attention in such matters. Following the argument put forward by Potter and Potter (1990), it might even be said that in certain relationships separation, which is often portrayed as if it were deeply problematic, is in fact highly desirable.

In this chapter, which focusses on examples of separations and reunions involving the dead, both of these complications will again come into play and their significance will thus be deepened. First (and to reverse my order), it will be seen that separation from the dead is often viewed as a good, or at least necessary, thing, and more generally that separations and reunions involving different kinds of spirits engender complex, and often highly ambivalent, responses. Second, it will be seen that history, and specifically political history, has a way of interfering with separations and reunions which involve the dead. What does it mean for the state to intervene in such processes?