本文探討雲林縣北港的「文化工作」。「文化工作」作為一種特別的社會行動 領域，泛指經過慎思的文化生產，關注記錄和再生產地方歷史與文化。本文將 地方文化工作放在修訂過的國家建構意識形態脈絡下，進而探討北港文史工作 者特殊的地方性敘事，實為特殊地方和更廣的跨地方政治經濟過程的產物。有 些敘事強調過去的傳統和道德，批評鎮內的當代權力關係。發掘媽祖廟（朝天 宮）之外的早期歷史的興趣，貝阪映了地方認同脫離廟宇及其領導階層的轉向。

This paper examines “culture work” (wenhua gongzuo) a broad field of deliberate cultural production which focuses on documenting and reproducing vernacular history and culture as a specific realm of social action in Beigang, Yunlin. It contextualizes local culture work as part of a revised nation-building ideology and then examines the particular narratives of locality produced by culture workers in Beigang to demonstrate that they are the result of both specifically local and broader trans-local political and economic processes. Narratives that emphasize a traditional moral past critique contemporary power relations in town; and an interest in recovering an earlier history which is not focused on its Mazu temple, Chaotian Gong, reflects a reorientation of local identity away from the temple and its leaders.