Affiliations, Networks, and Identities: Transnational Chinese Religions in the Modern Period

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together historical, textual, and anthropological scholarship to explore the global forms of circulation and interaction in the making of religious modernity in Chinese societies. Each paper examines specific issues pertaining to Buddhist, Christian, and popular religious exchanges and flows. Together, they offer a new understanding of the interplay between religion, ethnic consciousness, agency, locality, and transnational spatial imagination.

The first paper focuses on Avataṃsaka thought as a fundamental component of transnational discourse in Sinitic Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century. Such discourse enabled mutual influence and provided East Asian Buddhists with a philosophical framework to integrate various modern ideas into their own worldviews. The second paper investigates the intersection between identity and institution by tracing the rise and growth of the global Tiantai network in the twentieth century. It sheds light on innovative lineage transmission practices that draw in diverse lineage holders with a strong sense of affiliation.

Through a case study of the Chinese Mission Convention, the third paper shows how contemporary transnational connections between Chinese American evangelical communities and China are formed. By emphasizing China as a place that most urgently needs the Christian gospel, these missionary activities construct a China-centric social imaginary. Finally, drawing on ethnography in the Mazu cult in San Francisco, the forth paper challenges the assumption that Confucian ethos as a religious philosophy necessarily dominates women. It illuminates the ways in which Chinese women in the diaspora create new spaces and redefine their role in religious rituals and communities.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Rongdao Lai, University of Southern California

Chair

• Shin-yi Chao, University of Rochester

Individual Presentations

• Avataṃsaka Transnationalism in Modern East Asian Buddhism - Erik Hammerstrom, Pacific Lutheran University

• Transmission without Succession: The Rise of Transnational Tiantai Network in Twentieth-Century Chinese Buddhism - Rongdao Lai, University of Southern California

• “To Do Immeasurably More:” Forging Transnational Ties Via the Chinese American Evangelical Social Imaginary - Steven Hu, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Mazu, Meiguo Mazu, and Taiwanese/American Women: Transnational Goddess and Transnational Religiosity - Jonathan H. X. Lee, San Francisco State University

Discussant

• Fenggang Yang, Purdue University