THE day the Wu clan formally reopened its ancestral temple was a festive one. In the brutal era of Mao Zedong, the temple (which is over 700 years old) was destroyed and clan elders hid the Wu family archives from Red Guard fanatics. Puritanical communists despised the ancient kinship networks that had traditionally been a crucial support to aspirants in business or politics.
More recently a privately owned machinery factory sat in the temple grounds. Now the factory had been razed and the Wu temple restored to its glory by a dirty river. Houses were draped with red banners and bunting. Firecrackers scattered the demons, and clansmen from far and wide filed into the incense-filled hall to bow before portraits of the clan’s ancestors. The hero of that spring day in 2003, greeting guests, and leading a noisy parade through the streets, was Wu Zhenwang: acting chief of the local Wu clan, rebuilder of the temple, and China’s sex toy king.
