Description: Old Ya'an had a series of temples that backed up to Yuexin mountain, now all disassembled and replaced by schools and other types of government work units. While this process began well before Liberation in 1949 (see the work of D.C. Graham, referenced our essay entitled Body, Belief and the State) it reached its culmination just after liberation in the early 1950s when it would seem the majority of remaining temples were torn down and their materials and their sites used to build government offices and schools in a conscious re-appropriation of the symbols of old power. During the height of the socialist period, and especially during the cultural revolution, expressions of belief in the old gods were cause for persecution and were not tolerated by the official regime. With reform, and especially in the early 1990s local people started spontaneous remembrances of the old temples and their gods and many temples began a process of revitalization. Out of hiding came physical remnants of the old temples—pusa or even bits of pusa would be revealed and placed on altars. Some succeeded in establishing themselves in their old places; most did not. The officials have continued to persecute the popular religion revitalizations with varying intensity from year to year (2002-4 being an example of when, in the wake of Falun gong, many local religious shrines had to become quite secretive, closing their doors, and placing brick walls in front of their pusa). These shrines at the back of the old temples are a good demonstration of attempts at revitalization that have been suspended in an embryonic state. Give the age of most worshippers; their future seems to lack promise. The meaning of these gods and their temples are embedded in particular places; unlike a Christian church, the location of a Chinese popular religion temple is itself of critical significance; they can only be moved in reaction to express requests of the gods themselves (see for example the history of the Chuanzhu temple). This is a shrine erected to commemorate the City God. The City God temple was once located below in the now vacant lot down the hill in the photo. The old site is considered hallowed ground and even among those who profess no belief in traditional religion, few would choose to live or work on this usurped patch of ground for fear that it would have tangible consequences such as a sick child or early death. Because there is a public park immediately behind the old row of temples, local people have been able to establish small shrines to the old gods close to the old sites; there is one for the City God behind the City God temple and one for Guanyin behind the old Guanyin pavilion. In 2004, on the first day of the third month of the lunar calendar we found these shrines active as seen here. The Guanyin shrine featured an old head of an original statue from the temple. One can also see old architectural stones from the temple at the stand selling incense and paper money. An urn for burning money and a husband and wife pair of earth gods.