Mediated Agency and Funeral Insurance in China

This article examines attempts to set up a market for funerary insurance in China. Anthropologists and sociologists analyzing the insurance industry often emphasize the cultural aspects of the business, suggesting that “visions” or “imaginaries” of what insurance is and how insurance should work play a guiding role in other aspects of the business. In the case of funerary insurance in China, however, the imaginary of how the insurance should work evolved very rapidly in response to other factors. While not denying the role of cultural imaginaries in the insurance business, this article argues for a more mediated vision of the agency of these imaginaries.