Abstract: Victor Turner believes that the annual Ritual of Status Reversal has anti-structural characteristics, and the subject status of the ceremony will be subversive. However, during the new year of the Wa in Yanglai, Cangyuan County, the hidden traditional authority turns obvious, the status of the emerging elite is strengthened, and the relationship between man and God is constantly sublimated. The ritual process shows the characteristics of “Irreversibility.” According to the research, a various factors - kinship and geographical relationship of the rural society, folk beliefs such as animism and ancestor worship, the national rural governance policy, and the diversified livelihood - are comprehensively intertwined, resulting in the close cultural network and stable social structure. The Rituals of Status Reversal cannot enable the society to enter the “anti-structure” state and, as a result, the paradox of “Irreversibility” of the Rituals of Status Reversal appears.

Key words: Yanglai Village, the Wa people, Ritual of Status Reversal, irreversibility