Dr. Ruiyi Zhu (New York University Shanghai)

Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

This paper is concerned with the significance of rituals in transnational extractive operations, drawing on an ethnographic account of a privately-owned Chinese mining company in post-socialist Mongolia. I argue that Chinese miners adopt ritual worship of Tudi Ye (Locality God) as a strategy for managing the risks associated with extractive labor in a foreign territory. The paper further explores the contrasting perceptions of risk between the Chinese miners and the Mongolian residents and administrators, who view the mining industry as a source of danger and seek appeasement through propitiating the local land master. The parallel rituals performed by both groups shed light on the underlying political contention inherent in the mining industry. By interweaving ethnographic theories of risk with analyses of ritual politics in Chinese and Mongolian Studies, this paper provides a nuanced contextualization of transnational extractive labor and offers insight into the mobility of territorial spirits.