Functional Displacement in a Confucian Temple: Daytime Publicness, Image-Making, and Eventized Ritual at the Tonghai Wenmiao (Yunnan)

Functional Displacement in a Confucian Temple: Daytime Publicness, Image-Making, and Eventized Ritual at the Tonghai Wenmiao (Yunnan) | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Functional Displacement in a Confucian Temple: Daytime Publicness, Image-Making, and Eventized Ritual at the Tonghai Wenmiao (Yunnan) Zhenzhou Lyu, Xue Bai This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This article examines how the Tonghai Temple of Confucius (Wenmiao) in Yuxi, Yunnan is practically redefined in everyday life when most users treat it as a daytime leisure commons rather than a site of routine worship. Drawing on 30 + short, repeated observations (30–60 minutes each) across weekdays, weekends, and Spring Festival periods, and supplemented by publicly available documentation of festival programming (2017–2026), the study maps how practices are distributed across time, bodies, and expectations. Findings reveal a stable morning–daytime ecology: retirees repeatedly occupy a small set of micro-sites for Tai Chi, dance, and other bodily routines, while families and tourists move through the compound in sequential strolls punctuated by short stops, especially around the “Sea of Learning” pond. After midday, photography intensifies, reorganizing movement into circulation-with-pauses and longer hánfú portrait sessions supported by a street-to-courtyard service corridor. Ritual does not vanish but is redistributed into thin, optional micro-rituals on ordinary days and thicker, standardized ceremonial peaks staged as cultural programming. Conceptually, the article proposes “functional displacement” to describe this configuration. functional displacement social practices heritage publicness photography eventization of ritual Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterial.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8999086","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":599174402,"identity":"ad2e539e-c6a8-47ba-a4be-3e2473a6a515","order_by":0,"name":"Zhenzhou Lyu","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNmbmAwYJFTU8bPKHDxCnhY+dLaHgwZljMnwSbAnEaZHj51H4+LCN2UZOgseAWIfxMG5IbGPjYZPu+XjjDYOdnG4DQS28hw0SzsnwsMmc3Ww5hyHZ2OwAQS18aQYJZUBbGHK3SfMwHEjcRlgLj/mPBCDJxpDzjGgtBgYJbUAtEjlsxGphSzBIOHOMh43nmLHlHAMi/CLff/iA4Y+KGnv59uaHN95U2MkR1IICiI4aZC2k6hgFo2AUjIIRAQA1GjjRaCW+3AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhenzhou","middleName":"","lastName":"Lyu","suffix":""},{"id":599174405,"identity":"6435374e-4800-4ba8-87d8-bf192870a13e","order_by":1,"name":"Xue Bai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xue","middleName":"","lastName":"Bai","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-01 04:08:37","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104408153,"identity":"5733a105-5e06-433d-8031-28cbb23025b2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:41:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":726438,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AnonymousMainDocument.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8999086/v1_covered_8f0d6d96-34f3-4ba0-83a8-2955ba080b0b.pdf"},{"id":104400731,"identity":"d73bb38a-45e5-4bc3-88f0-c1f28b021ac2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:10:50","extension":"zip","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":28637851,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterial.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8999086/v1/06c0e68673d623c6e7eda30f.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Functional Displacement in a Confucian Temple: Daytime Publicness, Image-Making, and Eventized Ritual at the Tonghai Wenmiao (Yunnan)","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"functional displacement, social practices, heritage publicness, photography, eventization of ritual","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis article examines how the Tonghai Temple of Confucius (Wenmiao) in Yuxi, Yunnan is practically redefined in everyday life when most users treat it as a daytime leisure commons rather than a site of routine worship. Drawing on 30\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;short, repeated observations (30\u0026ndash;60 minutes each) across weekdays, weekends, and Spring Festival periods, and supplemented by publicly available documentation of festival programming (2017\u0026ndash;2026), the study maps how practices are distributed across time, bodies, and expectations. Findings reveal a stable morning\u0026ndash;daytime ecology: retirees repeatedly occupy a small set of micro-sites for Tai Chi, dance, and other bodily routines, while families and tourists move through the compound in sequential strolls punctuated by short stops, especially around the \u0026ldquo;Sea of Learning\u0026rdquo; pond. After midday, photography intensifies, reorganizing movement into circulation-with-pauses and longer h\u0026aacute;nf\u0026uacute; portrait sessions supported by a street-to-courtyard service corridor. Ritual does not vanish but is redistributed into thin, optional micro-rituals on ordinary days and thicker, standardized ceremonial peaks staged as cultural programming. Conceptually, the article proposes \u0026ldquo;functional displacement\u0026rdquo; to describe this configuration.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Functional Displacement in a Confucian Temple: Daytime Publicness, Image-Making, and Eventized Ritual at the Tonghai Wenmiao (Yunnan)","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-03 05:27:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999086/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6e8acdeb-4d23-4ef3-8653-1d075740dfc6","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 3rd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-10T11:23:16+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-03 05:27:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8999086","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8999086","identity":"rs-8999086","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}