Compares those active resistance movements which burst into public view in China and "cultural resistance", which instead lies unspoken in everyday action. This book argues that certain areas of life defuse attempts at cultural domination by resisting and dissolving all unified interpretation.

Part 1 Introduction: resistance; saturation and potentials. Part 2 Taiping Rebellion: Jesus's brother and the Chinese periphery; saturating the movement - God gets power; too many voices; precipitation and institution - the Taiping rises up. Part 3 Taiwanese ghosts: hot and noisy religion; saturated ghosts and social change in Taiwan; failed precipitations; the limits to cultural domination. Part 4 Conclusion - Tiananmen and beyond: institutions of control, institutions beyond control; irony, cynicism and potential resistance.