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Course title:
Religion in Modern Chinese Culture
Dates:
November 23 - December 4 2015
Venue:
Center for Chinese Studies,
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Lecturer:
Dr Fang-Long Shih
(London School of Economics, University of London)
Contact:
Dr Fang-Long Shih
Co-Director of Taiwan Research Programme,
London School of Economics and Political Science,
Houghton Street,
London WC2A 2AE,
United Kingdom
f.shih@lse.ac.uk
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Course description
This course is an introduction to the study of Chinese religions, and consists of
three parts: methods, aspects, and issues. Taiwan will be the main case study.
The lectures will begin with an overview of the problems of writing Chinese
religions general, and in Taiwan in particular. Having reviewed the problem, we will
then look at method, considering three significant approaches: (1) phenomenology
of religion; (2) sociology of religion; and (3) anthropology of religion, with each
related to the study of Chinese religions.
Having understood these approaches, we will then turn to particular aspects of
Chinese religions, in particular considering three distinctive dimensions: (1) ‘gods,
ancestors, and ghosts’; (2) ‘women, family, and kinship’; and (3) ‘death, ritual, and
afterlife’. We will move then further move on to discuss significant issues in relation
to Chinese religion: (1) ‘religion and modernity’; (2) ‘religion and democracy’; and
(3) ‘religion and globalization’.
Throughout this course, Chinese religion will be examined as being embodied in
social, economic, and political processes. By applying a range of theoretical
approaches to the various aspects of religion and issues relating to religion, the
course will be of potential interest to a wide range of students, and will stimulate
new interactions between disciplines. This will help to develop new spaces for
dialogue and understanding of Chinese religious ideas and practices.
Course assessment
Students will be assessed on one written essay of 2,000 words (not including
bibliography). Students are asked to analyse an issue discussed in this course
from a particular disciplinary perspective. The student will decide which issue to
choose from the course.
The criteria for the assessment of the essay will include several elements: clarity
of key points, referencing of significant literature, accuracy of information, handling
of methodology, and insights into the topic.
Course Outline
Lecture 1: The Problem of Understanding Chinese Religion
Lecture 2: Phenomenological Approaches to the Religions of China
Lecture 3: Sociological Approaches to Chinese Religions
Lecture 4: Anthropological Approaches to Chinese Religions
Lecture 5: Death, Ritual, and the Afterlife in Chinese Religious Culture
Lecture 6: Women, Family, and Kinship in Chinese Religious Culture
Lecture 7: Gods, Ancestors, and Ghosts in Chinese Religious Culture
Lecture 8: Religion and Modernity in the Chinese Context
Lecture 9: Religion and Democracy in the Chinese Context
Lecture 10: Religion and Globalization in the Chinese Context
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Lecture 1: The Problem of Understanding Chinese Religion
This course begins with this lecture, tackling the problem of understanding Chinese
religion. First, we will look at the problem of there being no term for ‘religion’ in Chinese
vocabulary, meaning that Chinese doesn’t have a concept of ‘religion’ as understood in
the West. Second, we will then explore what ‘religion’ is in Chinese context; and thirdly, I
will explain how in Chinese society Confucianism, Daoism, and Mahayaha Buddhism form
a complex religio-cultural matrix, and that religion is social and this worldly.
Required Readings:
Freedman, Maurice (1974) ‘On the Sociology Study of Chinese Religion’, in Arthur Wolf (ed.)
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 19–41.
Shih, Fang-Long (2009) ‘Re-Writing Religion: Questions of Translation, Context, and Location in
the Writing of Religion in Taiwan’, in Fang-Long Shih, Paul-François Tremlett, and Stuart
Thompson (eds) Re-Writing Culture in Taiwan. London: Routledge, pp.15–33.
Suggested Readings:
Bell, Catherine (1989) ‘Religion and Chinese Culture: Toward an Assessment of “Popular
Religion”’, History of Religions 29 (1): 35–57.
Feuchtwang, Stephan (1991) ‘A Chinese Religion Exists’, in Hugh Baker and Stephan Feuchtwang
(eds) An Old State in New Settings: Studies in the Social Anthropology of China in Memory
of Maurice Freedman. Oxford: JASO, pp. 139–161.
Harrell, Stevan (1979) ‘The Concept of Soul in Chinese Folk Religion’, Journal of Asian Studies,
38 (3): 519–528.
Jones, Charles B. (1999) Buddhism in Taiwan: Religion and the State, 1660–1990. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press.
Lopez, Donald (ed.) (1996) Religions of China: In Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schipper, Kristofer (1993) The Taoist Body. Berkeley: University of California Press. Translated by
Karen Duval.
Shahar, Meir and Weller, Robert (eds) (1996) Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China. Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press. (Introduction: ‘Gods and Society in China’, pp. 1–36)
Thompson, Laurence (1996) Chinese Religion: An Introduction. London: Wadsworth.
Tu, Wei-Ming and Mary Evelyn Tucker (eds) (2002) Confucian Spirituality. New York: Crossroad.
Yu, Ying-Shih (1987) ‘“O Soul, Come Back”: A Study in the Changing Conceptions of the Soul and
Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 47 (1): 363–395.
Lecture 2: Phenomenological Approaches to the Religions of China
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From this lecture, we will be looking at three significant approaches to the study of religion,
beginning with the phenomenological approach and showing how it can be applied to the
religions of China. In particular, I will show how phenomenologists perceived and classified
the religions of China as three institutionalised traditions: Confucianism, Daoism, and
Buddhism. Further, in this lecture we will examine Ninian Smart’s presentation of these
religions in terms of texts, founders, doctrines, rituals and other traits and characteristics
presumed to belong to that class of phenomena designated by the word ‘religion’. We will
also examine recent critiques of phenomenological approach to the religions of China.
Required Readings:
Ching, Julia (1993) Chinese Religions. London: Macmillan (Chapter 3 and 4 on Confucianism;
Chapter 5 and 6 on Taoism; Chapter 7 and 8 on Buddhism; pp. 51–152).
Smart, Ninian (1969) The Religious Experience of Mankind. Collins: Fount (Chapter 4: ‘Chinese
and Japanese Religious Experience’, pp.189–282).
Suggested Readings:
Chang, Chung-Yuan (trans.) (1969) Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism Selected from The
Transmission of the Lamp. New York: Pantheon Books.
Cox, James (2010) An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion. London: Continuum.
Eliade, Mircea (1959) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. New York: Harcourt
Brace Javonovich.
Fowler, Jeaneane and Fowler, Merv (2008) Chinese Religions: Beliefs and Practices. Brighton:
Sussex Academic Press.
Hall, D. and Ames, R. (1987) Thinking Through Confucius. Albany: State University of New York
Press.
Hoffman, Louis (2012) ‘An Existential-Phenomenological Approach to the Psychology of Religion’,
Pastoral Psychology, 61: 783–795.
Overmyer, Daniel (1986) Religions of China: The World as a Living System. San Francisco: Harper
& Row.
Paper, Jordan (1995) The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion. Albany:
State University of New York.
Schipper, Kristofer, and Verellen, Franciscus (eds) (2004) The Taoist Canon: A Historical
Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sharpe Eric (1994) Comparative Religion: A History. London: Duckworth.
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Lecture 3: Sociological Approaches to Chinese Religions
This lecture will introduce a second approach to religion: the sociological approach, and
then how it has been applied to the religions of China. We will look at the works of Emile
Durkheim and Max Weber, and the contemporary issues of sociology of religion such as
secularization, disenchantment, and New Religious Movements, and the New Age and
spirituality. In particular, we will explore how the ‘New Age’ beliefs and practices in Taiwan
have exhibited classic features that are also evident in the West such as healing, emotion,
and a concern with the Self in response to the challenges of life in a rapidly changing world.
Required Readings:
Chen, Shu-Chuan (2008) Contemporary New Age Transformation in Taiwan: A Sociological Study
of a New Religious Movement. New York: Edwin Mellen Press (Chapter 1: ‘Beginning of the
Journey’ and Chapter 2: ‘The Concept of the New Age’).
Durkheim, Emile (1971 [1915]) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: Macmillan.
Translated by Joseph Ward Swain (Book 1 Chapter 1: ‘Definition of Religious Phenomena
and of Religion’ and Book 2 Chapter 7: ‘Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana’)
Suggested Readings:
Bruce, Steve (2002) God is Dead: Secularization in the West. Oxford: Blackwell.
Chou, Kai-Ti and Alexander, Philip S. (eds) (2008) Contemporary Religious Movements in Taiwan:
Rhetorics of Persuasion. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.
Eric Y., Koenig, Harold G., and Wei, Dedong (2011) ‘Discovering a Blissful Island: Religious
Involvement and Happiness in Taiwan’, Sociology of Religion, 73 (1): 46–168.
Hamilton, Malcolm (2001) The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives.
London: Routledge.
Jordan, David and Overmyer, Daniel (1986) The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism
in Taiwan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Madsen, Richard (1998) China’s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
McGuire, Meredith (2008) Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, Max (1968) The Religion of China. New York: Free Press
Weber, Max (1991) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London & New York: Routledge. Edited
and translated by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.
Yao, Yu-Shuang (2012) Taiwan’s Tzu Chi as Engaged Buddhism: Origins, organization, appeal
and social impact, Leiden: Global Oriental.
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Lecture 4: Anthropological Approaches to Chinese Religions
This lecture will introduce a third approach to religion: the anthropological approach, and
then how the development of anthropological approaches has been reflected in the
analysis and understanding of Chinese religions. In particular, we will develop an overview
of various strands in the anthropology of Chinese religions via an introduction to the early
works of J. J. De Groot, Marcel Granet, Maurice Freedman, and the more recent works of
Stephan Feuchtwang.
Required Readings:
Feuchtwang, Stephan, Shih, Fang-Long, and Tremlett, Paul-François (2006) ‘The Formation and
Function of the Category “Religion” in Anthropological Studies of Taiwan’. Method and
Theory in the Study of Religion, 18 (1): 37–66.
Shih, Fang-Long (2010) ‘Women, Religions and Feminisms’, in Bryan S. Turner (ed.), Blackwell
Companion to the Sociology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 221–243.
Suggested Readings:
Bowie, Fiona (2006) The Anthropology of Religion: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Chau, Adam Yuet (2006) Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
De Groot, Jan Jakob Maria (1892-1910) The Religious System of China. 6 vols. Leiden: Brill.
Granet, Marcel (1975 [1922]) The Religion of the Chinese People. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Translated by Maurice Freedman.
Feuchtwang, Stephan (2001) Popular Religion in China: The Imperial Metaphor. Richmond, Surrey:
Curzon.
Morris, Brian (1994) Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Murray, Stephen and Hong, Keelung (1991) ‘American Anthropologists Looking Through
Taiwanese Culture’. Dialectical Anthropology, 16: 3–4, 273–299.
Sangren, Steven (1987) History and Magical Power in a Chinese Community. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Weller, Robert (1987) Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington
Press.
Wolf, Arthur (ed.) (1974) Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University
Press.
Yang, Ching-Kun (1967) Religion in Chinese Society: A Study of Contemporary Social Functions
of Religion and Some of their Historical Factors. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Lecture 5: Death, Ritual, and the Afterlife in Chinese Religious Culture
From this lecture, we move on to look at distinctive dimensions of Chinese religious culture,
starting with death, rituals and the afterlife. I will first outline the significant features of
‘good death’ rituals through which the discontinuity of biological death is transformed into
the social continuity of being an ancestor. We will then looks at ‘bad death’ practices
relating to males who die in childhood or before they marry, with a focus on the rituals
through which they are re-incorporated into their family lines and granted ancestral status.
The lecture also analyses the cultural significance of death practices relating to those
women who die unmarried and who have no place in a family line or on an ancestral altar,
and are excluded from the social practices of remembering that ancestor worship
enshrines.
Required Readings:
Shih, Fang-Long (2010) ‘Chinese “Bad Death” Practices in Taiwan: Maidens and Modernity’,
Mortality, 15 (2): 122–137.
Watson, James and Rawski, Evelyn (eds) (1988) Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China.
California: University of California Press (Chapter 1: ‘The Structure of Chinese Funerary
Rites’, pp. 3–19).
Suggested Readings:
Ahern, Emily (1973) The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford UniversityPress.
Ahern, Emily (1981) Chinese Ritual and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freedman, Maurice (1970) ‘Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship and Marriage’, in Maurice Freedman
(ed.) Family and Kinship in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 163–187.
Martin, Diana (1991) ‘Chinese Ghost Marriage’, in Hugh Baker and Stephan Feuchtwang (eds) An
Old State in New Settings: Studies in the Social Anthropology of China in Memory of Maurice
Freedman. Oxford: JASO, pp. 25–43.
Martin, Emily (1988) ‘Gender and Ideological Differences in Representations of Life and Death’, in
James Watson and Evelyn Rawski (eds) Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China.
California: University of California Press, pp. 164–179.
Sangren, P. Steven (1983) ‘Female Gender in Chinese Religious Symbols: Kuan Yin, Ma Tsu, and
the “Eternal Mother”’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 9 (1): 4–25.
Teiser, Stephen (1988) The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Thompson, Stuart (1988) ‘Death, Food, and Fertility’, in James Watson and Evelyn Rawski (eds)
Death Ritual in Later Imperial and Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press,
pp. 71–108.
Tong, Chee Kiong (2004) Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
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Lecture 6: Women, Family, and Kinship in Chinese Religious Culture
This lecture will introduce a second distinctive dimension of Chinese religious culture: its
approach to women, family, and kinship. Chinese religion is essentially social and deeply
involved in shifting structures of family life which in turn are mutually implicated in gender
norms, values and relationalities. I will first show how Confucian ideas and practices
traditionally are fundamental to the formation of family institutions and gender relations,
and I will then provide examples of how embodied religious practices are crucial sites for
the political, economic, and social negotiation and transformation of family structure and
gender roles.
Required Readings:
Kelleher, Theresa (1987) ‘Confucianism’ in Arvind Sharma (ed.) Women in World Religions.
Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 135–159.
Shih, Fang-Long (forthcoming) ‘Reading Gender and Religion in East Asia: Family Formations and
Cultural Transformations’, in Bryan Turner (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia.
Abingdon: Routledge.
Suggested Readings:
Baker, Hugh D. R. (1979) Chinese Family and Kinship London: Macmillan (Chapter 2: ‘The
Individual and the Family’, pp. 26–48).
Eastman, Lloyd E. (1988) Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China’s Social
and Economic History, 1550–1949. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ebrey, Patricia B. (2003) Women and the Family in Chinese History. London: Routledge.
Gates, Hill (1996) China’s Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism. New York: Cornell
University Press (Chapter 8: ‘Folk Ideologies: Women and Men’, pp. 177–203).
Li, Chenyang (ed.) (2000) The Sage and the Second Sex. Chicago: Open Court.
McFarlane, Stewart (1994) ‘Chinese Religions’, in Jean Holm and John Bowker (eds) Women in
Religion. London: Pinter, pp. 158–167.
Sangren, P. Steven (1997) Myth, Gender, and Subjectivity. Hsinchu City, Taiwan: National Tsing
Hua University.
Sangren, P. Steven (2013) ‘The Chinese Family as Instituted Fantasy: or, Rescuing Kinship
Imaginaries from the “Symbolic”’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 19:
279–299.
Jaschok, M. and Miers, S. (1994) Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude and
Escape. London: Zed Books.
Wolf, Margery and Witke, Roxane (eds) (1975) Women in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
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Lecture 7: Gods, Ancestors, and Ghosts in Chinese Religious Culture
This lecture will introduce a third distinctive dimension of Chinese religious culture: gods,
ancestors and ghosts. It will first explore how the Chinese supernatural world has been
understood in structural-functionalist terms, in particular as a reflection of the social order of
the living world, divided into three major categories: ancestors, ghosts and gods, and each
spirit category corresponds to a certain group in living society. This has become a ‘mirror
model’ for interpreting the Chinese spirit world, and has further been modified and challenged
by other scholars.
Required Readings:
Shih, Fang-Long (2007) ‘Generation of a New Space: A Maiden Temple in the Chinese Religious
Culture of Taiwan’, Culture and Religion, 8 (1): 89–104.
Wolf, Arthur (1974) ‘Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors’, in Arthur Wolf (ed.) Religion and Ritual in
Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 131–182.
Suggested Readings:
Boretz, Avron (2010) Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters: Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity
on the Margins of Chinese Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Feuchtwang, Stephan (2003) ‘The Avenging Ghost: Paradigm of a Shameful Past’, in Mei-Rong
Lin (ed.) The Third International Conference on Sinology: Anthropology Section: Belief,
Ritual and Society. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, pp. 7–36.
Feuchtwang, Stephan (2010) The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts: Chinese
Lessons for Adequate Theory. Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter.
Harrell, Stevan (1974) ‘When a Ghost Becomes a God’, in Arthur Wolf (ed.) Religion and Ritual in
Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 193–206.
Harrell, Stevan (1986) ‘Men, Women, and Ghosts in Taiwanese Folk Religion’, in Caroline Bynum,
Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman (eds) Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of
Symbols. Boston: Beacon, pp. 97–116.
Jordan, David (1972) Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nadeau, Randall and Chang, Hsun (2003) ‘Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: Religious Studies and
the Question of “Taiwanese Identity”’, in Philip Clart and Charles Jones (eds) Religion in
Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society. Honolulu: University of
Hawai’i Press, pp. 280–299.
Yu, Kuang-hong (1991) ‘Making a Malefactor a Benefactor: Ghost Worship in Taiwan’, Bulletin of
the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 70: 39–66.
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Lecture 8: Religion and Modernity in the Chinese Context
From this lecture, we move on to look at significant issues in relation to Chinese religious
culture, starting with religion and modernity. It begins by arguing that religious practices
are like texts, which can be read as reflecting and negotiating both traditional social
conditions and wider processes of political and economic changes associated with
modernity. As such, this lecture will explore how, during the modernization of Taiwan, the
KMT guidelines for household and temple rituals were directed towards the rationalization
of religious activities and worship. I will further show how the DPP tourist guidelines for
religious rituals have transformed those rituals into a vehicle for tourism and a modern
nation-building project.
Required Readings:
Shih, Fang-Long (2006) ‘From Regulation and Rationalisation, to Production: Government Policy
on Religion in Taiwan’, in Dafydd Fell, Henning Klöter, and Bi-yu Chang (eds) What Has
Changed? Taiwan Before and After the Change in Ruling Parties, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,
pp. 265–283.
Tremlett, Paul-François (2009) ‘Re-riting Death: Secularism and Death-Scapes in Taipei’, in FangLong
Shih, Paul-François Tremlett, and Stuart Thompson (eds) Re-Writing Culture in
Taiwan. London: Routledge, pp.34–49.
Suggested Readings:
Chandler, Stuart (2004) Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on
Modernization and Globalization. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Clart, Philip and Jones, Charles (eds) (2003) Religion in Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation
in a Changing Society. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Jordan, David (1994) ‘Changes in Postwar Taiwan and Their Impact on the Popular Practice of
Religion’, in Stevan Harrell and Chun-chieh Huang (eds) Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan.
Boulder: Westview, pp. 137–160.
Kiong, Tong-Chee and Kong, Lily (2002) 'Religion and Modernity: Ritual Transformations and the
Reconstruction of Space and Time', Social and Cultural Geography, 1 (1): 29–44.
Madsen, Richard, Sullivan, William M., Swidler, Ann., and Tipton, Steven M. (eds) (2002) Meaning
and Modernity: Religion, Polity, and Self. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Moskowitz, Marc (2001) The Haunting Fetus: Abortion, Sexuality, and the Spirit World in Taiwan.
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Thornton, Arland and Lin, Hui-sheng (eds) (1994) Social Change and the Family in Taiwan.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Weller, Robert (2000) ‘Living at the Edge: Religion, Capitalism, and the End of the Nation-State in
Taiwan’. Public Culture, 12 (2): 477–498.
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Lecture 9: Religion and Democracy in the Chinese Context
This lecture looks at a second issue relating to Chinese religious culture: religion and
democracy. Classical theory of liberal democracy links a market economy to the rise of a
middle class which in turn promotes democracy. This lecture re-examines this theory in
terms of Taiwan’s continuing democratic development, focusing on the role of religion in
social movements. In particular, we will look at how local people have generated power
from religion to consolidate their campaign against the building and operation of a new
nuclear power plant in democratic Taiwan.
Essential Readings:
Shih. Fang-Long (2012) ‘Generating Power in Taiwan: Nuclear, Political, and Religious Power’,
Culture and Religion, 13 (3): 309–327.
Madsen, R. (2007) Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in
Taiwan. California: University of California Press (’Conclusions’, pp. 131–157).
Further Readings:
De Bary, William T. (1998) Asian Values and Human Rights: A Confucian Communitarian
Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jullien, François (2004) A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking. Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press. Translated by Janet Lloyd.
Katz, Paul R. (2009) Divine Justice: Religion and the Development Of Chinese Legal Culture.
London and New York: Routledge.
Katz, Paul R. and Rubenstein, Murray (eds) (2003) Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese
Identities. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kuo, Cheng-Tian (2008) Religion and Democracy in Taiwan. Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press.
Madsen, Richard (2007) Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development
in Taiwan. California: University of California Press.
Rubenstein, Murray A. (2003) ‘Christianity and Democratization in Modern Taiwan: The
Presbyterian Church and the Struggle of Minnan/Hakka Selfhood in the Republic of China’,
in Philip Clart and Charles B. Jones (eds) Religion in Modern Taiwan. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press.
Weller, Robert (1999) Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan. Oxford:
Westview.
Weller, Robert (2007) ‘Identity and Social Change in Taiwanese Religion’, in Murray Rubinstein
(ed.) Taiwan: A New History, Expanded Edition. New York: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 339–365.
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Lecture 10: Religion and Glocalization in the Chinese Context
This lecture looks at a third issue relating to Chinese religious culture: the question of
religion and glocalization in the Chinese context. Critically, recent processes of
globalization have been accompanied by a rise of Taiwanese nationalism. This lecture will
examine the performance of a local god Nezha in global tour. The god Nezha has been
understood as the unruly spirit of the youth, and his conflict with his father as embodying
the conflict between Taiwan and China. We will see that the performance of Nezha
demonstrates the Freudian displacement of conflict from the political realm to that of
culture in the global and electronic era by the younger generation.
Required Readings:
Huang, C. Julia (2009) Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi
Movement. Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press (Chapter 6: ‘A Genealogy
of NGOness’ and Chapter 7: ‘On a Global Stage’, pp.184–246).
Shih, Fang-Long (forthcoming) ‘From Politics to Culture: Taiwanization Discourses and the Techno
Prince Nezha’, in Cross-Strait Relations in an Era of Technological Change: Security,
Economic and Cultural Dimensions. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Suggested Readings:
Beyer, P. (1994) Religion and Globalization. London: Sage.
Feuchtwang, Stephan (ed.) (2004) Making Place: State Projects, Globalisation and Local
Responses in China. London: UCL Press.
Huang, Chien-Yu and Weller, Robert (1998) ‘Merit and Mothering: Women and Social Welfare in
Taiwanese Buddhism’, Journal of Asian Studies, 57 (2): 379–396.
Huang, C. Julia (2009) Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi
Movement, Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press.
Laliberté, André (2004) The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan, 1989–2003:
Safeguarding the Faith, Building a Pure Land, Helping the Poor. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Li, Yu-chen (2000) ‘Ordination, Legitimacy, and Sisterhood: The International Full Ordination
Ceremony in Bodhgaya’, in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.) Innovative Buddhist Women:
Swimming against the Stream. Surrey: Curzon, pp. 168–198.
Madsen, Richard (2002) ‘Confucian Conceptions of Civil Society’, in Simone Chambers and Will
Kymlicka (eds) Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
Tucker, Mary E. and Berthong, John (eds) (1998) Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of
Heaven, Humans, and Earth. Cambridge MA: Harvard Press.
Weller, Robert (2006) Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and
Taiwan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Chapter 5: ‘Garbage Wars and Spiritual
Environments’, pp. 105–136).