ASIAR

“道教的經典與儀式”雲端系列學術講座開幕式暨第一講“《太上靈寶五符序》所見黃初平傳考釋”
2024-03-01 19:40 - 22:00 (Asia/Hong_Kong) | Via Zoom (Registration required)
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“道教的經典與儀式”雲端系列學術講座開幕式暨第一講”《太上靈寶五符序》所見黃初平傳考釋
Date/Time: March 1, 2024, 19:40-22:00 (HK time)Language: Putonghua
Venue: via Zoom (Registration is required.)
Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtde2hqT8iE9L-ltL723nvFJ354d8fkNDH
ABSTRACT魏晉道教神仙黃初平即今東南沿海廣為流傳的黃大仙，其仙傳故事源出葛洪《神仙傳》幾為學界共識，而美國學者康儒博（Robert F. Campany）首次注意到黃初平傳也見於早期道經《太上靈寶五符序》。本次講座擬在康儒博研究的基礎上，進一步考證現存最早收錄黃初平傳的文獻是《太上靈寶五符序》。又以《太上靈寶五符序》為中心，考釋黃初平成仙的關鍵在於服食松脂、茯苓。首先論證松脂、茯苓方是《太上靈寶五符序》記載的一系列服御方之一，源出靈寶五符天文，又將此經所載松脂、茯苓方與其他道書、本草文獻的相關記載進行比較，最後考述黃初平“叱石成羊”與服食松脂、茯苓的關係及其背後的信仰。期望通過這些論述，深入挖掘黃大仙信仰的道教文化內涵。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER楊金麗，西南交通大學人文學院博士研究生。
ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU; Centre on Chinese Religions, Southwest Jiaotong University

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Ritual and Religion in Chinese History and Anthropology
2024-03-01 10:30 - 12:00 | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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Ritual and Religion in Chinese History and Anthropology
Date/Time: March 1, 2024, 10:30-12:00 (HK time)Language: English
Venue: Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (Registration is required.)
Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAvcOuvqTosGNxXZqG7iYdEg5uPRPOK_w8c
ABSTRACTAn exploration of ritual practices in Chinese history and anthropology, as well as indigenous ritual theory concerning these practices, opens up a number of interesting comparative issues concerning religion, belief, and, of course, ritual itself. This talk will discuss these themes and the larger implications these issues may have for our understandings.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERMichael Puett is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard University. His interests are focused on the inter-relations between religion, philosophy, anthropology, and history, with the hope of bringing the study of China into larger historical and comparative frameworks. He is the author of The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China and To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China, as well as the co-author, with Adam Seligman, Robert Weller, and Bennett Simon, of Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity.
ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU; Common Core Office, HKU; Centre on Chinese Religions, Southwest Jiaotong University

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The BRI in National Peripheries: Gwadar and the Limits of Outsourced Development
2024-01-26 12:00 - 13:30 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
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The BRI in National Peripheries: Gwadar and the Limits of Outsourced Development
Date/Time: January 26, 2024, 12:00-13:30 (HK time)Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Registration link: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwucO-sqTwvG9C9FXWSkUEgfGqtVLHjanA6
ABSTRACTThe China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is an important pilot project of China’s Belt & Road Initiative. Within CPEC, Gwadar in Pakistan’s Balochistan province enjoys a privileged position in the development imaginaries of both Chinese and Pakistani policymakers. Even though Gwadar is central to the discourse on CPEC and development, the impact on the ground remains limited. What explains this lack of progress despite Gwadar’s privileged position within CPEC and the BRI? The paper argues that the lack of progress in Gwadar is a function of multiple variables, including the region’s history as peripheral to Pakistan’s development imaginary, persistent violence and a growth model predicated on land speculation. Furthermore, Gwadar signifies what the paper refers to as an ‘outsourced development’ model in the BRI. In this model, Chinese actors, especially State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), take on the responsibilities of the state in providing public goods and other social services. The state within the host country further abdicates its limited role in providing peripheral regions with public goods and social services. The paper argues that although these non-state transnational actors are filling the void left by a weak domestic state, they have limited space for independent action and must work through local power structures.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERTayyab Safdar completed his MPhil and PhD in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. His research explores the evolving dynamics of South-South Development Cooperation, with the rise of emerging powers in the developing world like China and India. His research also looks at the implications of increasing Chinese investment in developing countries that are a part of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), like Pakistan. Using evidence through in-depth fieldwork from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Tayyab is especially interested in understanding the rules and incentives that inform the interaction between Chinese stakeholders and elite actors in Pakistan. Tayyab’s research has been published in the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Journal of Development Studies, and Energy for Sustainable Development. In 2022, he gave testimony before the US-China Economic and Review Commission on China’s response to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and China’s engagement with Pakistan.
Tayyab was the inaugural BRI Post-Doctoral researcher at the Department of Politics & East Asia Center UVA. Prior to joining UVA, Tayyab was a Newton Trust Post-Doctoral researcher at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge.
ORGANIZERSGlobal China Local Cultures (GCLC), ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

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Sacred Politics of Chinese Infrastructure: Christians, Buddha’s Tooth, and Dragons at Myitsone, Kachin, Burma
2023-12-12 15:00 - 16:30 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Sacred Politics of Chinese Infrastructure: Christians, Buddha’s Tooth, and Dragons at Myitsone, Kachin, Burma
Date/Time: December 12, 2023, 15:00-16:30 (HK time)Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
ABSTRACTHow do ‘communist’ Chinese developers handle sacred politics? What role do religions and sacredness play in infrastructural conflicts? Discussions on Chinese investment and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) often highlight the failure of China’s largest-ever hydropower project overseas – the Myitsone Dam mega-project in the ethnic Kachin region of Burma (Myanmar). Public outcry against this multi-billion-dollar development pushed the Burmese regime to halt construction in 2011, shocking Beijing and causing an international scandal. Based on interviews, Chinese media analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork among Kachin people since 2010, my talk explores this infrastructural conflict’s religious, indigenous, and more-than-human politics. The talk focuses on the project site – the famous Myitsone confluence. There, local village church leaders led and sheltered the earliest anti-dam resistance. There also, the Chinese developers engaged with Catholicism, Baptism, Theravada Buddhism, and animist worlds. The more-than-human charms of this natural landscape helped create sacredness, which the Chinese dam proponents struggled to respond to. Throughout, this international infrastructural controversy always involved sacred politics. (The talk is based on a forthcoming article in the journal Modern Asian Studies.)
ABOUT THE SPEAKERLaur Kiik studies nationalism, natural resources, wildlife conservation, and war in the Burma–China borderlands. He has done ethnographic research among Kachin people since 2010. He is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tokyo.
ORGANIZERSGlobal China Local Cultures (GCLC), ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

Infrastructural Splintering along the BRI: Catholic Political Ecologies and the Fractious Futures of Sri Lanka's Littorial Spaces
2023-11-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Infrastructural Splintering along the BRI: Catholic Political Ecologies and the Fractious Futures of Sri Lanka’s Littorial Spaces
Date/Time: November 24, 2023, 15:00-16:30 (HK time)Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)

ABSTRACT This article considers the ways in which the material infrastructures of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with other infrastructural formations, and how the resulting overlaps can trigger processes of what I call “infrastructural splintering”. These processes cause infrastructure to be experienced in differentiating ways, creating divisive politics where there might once have been unity. Embracing these politics as an analytical starting point undermines the techno-material stability of the BRI, and reveals its more-than-material affects. I illustrate these ideas by developing a case study of the effects of the China-backed Colombo Port City project on Catholic fishing communities that are dependent upon the aquatic commons for survival. The construction of the Port City has brought about significant aquatic pollution and ecosystem destruction, and public erasure by Colombo’s political elites. Complicating matters is the dominance of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka’s littoral spaces, which has become divided by a universalist politico-ecological consciousness imposed by the Vatican, a corruptible local hierarchy, and environmental activists that engage communities by working through the Church’s sacred infrastructures. By working through these processes of infrastructural splintering, I consider how the BRI has caused Sri Lanka’s littoral spaces to face increasingly fractious futures.
ABOUT THE SPEAKEROrlando Woods is an Associate Professor of Geography and Lee Kong Chian Fellow at the College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University. His research interests span cities, infrastructure development, and religious pluralisms in South and Southeast Asia.
ORGANIZERSGlobal China Local Cultures (GCLC), ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

Traces of the Way: Memory and Transformation in Daoist Jataka Tales
2023-11-23 14:00 - 15:30 | Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
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Traces of the Way: Memory and Transformation in Daoist Jataka Tales
道跡：道教本生故事中的記憶與變化
Date/Time: November 23, 2023, 14:00-15:30 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
日期/時間：2023年11月23日，14:00-15:30
語言：英語
地點：香港大學百周年校園逸夫教學樓，730室
Registration Link/注冊鏈接: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cu7EJDLnwiXR8Ro

ABSTRACTThe Wondrous Scripture of Original Deeds from the Cavern of Darkness (Dongxuan benxing miaojing 洞玄本行妙經) is a medieval Daoist scripture, consists of a story cycle of the prior lives of Daoist gods. Inspired by Buddhist jataka tales, these stories exemplify how Daoist authors used and elaborated Buddhist ideas to creatively fit into Daoist cosmology. Thus, rather than awakening, the Daoist tales focus on bodily transformation and appointment as deities. Indeed, the Daoist tales are not really about the karma of the deities but about the efficacy of the True Writs 真⽂. Another key difference is that while Buddhist jataka tales the memory of past lives is a basic assumption, in Daoist narratives this premise is replaced by “traces” 跡, some form of visual inscription (textual, talismanic, archeological) that verifies the past. In this talk, I focus on “traces” 跡, a key notion in medieval Daoist discourse. I discuss the development of the discourse of “traces” from early China to the medieval period, as well as to our modern ideas of tracing Daoist sources. Alongside transformation, the notion of “trace” is fundamental to our understanding of medieval Daoism.
摘要
《洞玄本行妙經》是一部中古時期的道教經典，由一系列道教諸神的本生故事所組成。這些受到佛教本生故事啓發的道教故事，成爲了解道教作者如何利用、闡釋佛教思想，將其創造性融入道教宇宙觀的絕佳案例。因此，道教故事的重點不在覺悟，而是强調身體的變化以及被任命爲神靈。事實上，道教故事并不專門講述神靈的行業，而是關於真文的功效。另一個關鍵的差異是，佛教本生故事的基本假定是講述前世的記憶，但在道教故事之中，這個前提卻被「跡」所取代了，即是以某種視覺化的銘刻（文字、符篆、古蹟）來證實過去的經歷。這次的講演，我將集中討論「跡」，一個中古時期道教話語中的關鍵概念。我將討論先秦到中古時期「跡」的話語及其發展，以及我們循跡追尋道教根源的現代觀點。除了變化之外，「跡」的概念對於我們理解中古道教也是至關重要的。

ABOUT THE SPEAKERGil Raz is Associate Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, specializing in Daoism. His research interests include Daoist ritual, notions of the body, visual and material culture, and religious interactions in medieval China. His book The Emergence of Daoism (2012) examines the development of Daoism in early medieval China. His recent research focuses on Daoist archeological and epigraphic materials as sources for Daoist lived religion.
關於講者
李福，達姆斯大學宗教系副教授，專門研究道教。研究範圍包括道教儀式，身體觀，視覺與物質文明，和中國中古時期宗教互動關係。著有《道教的發源》考察中國中古時期道教的來源與發展。最近主要從事道教生活宗教用考古碑刻資料。

ORGANIZERS
ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU; School of Chinese, HKU
主辦方
香港大學香港人文社會研究所亞洲宗教連結研究組；香港大學中文學院

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Transnational Chinese Religion as Shadow Infrastructure along the ‘Maritime Silk Road’: The Case of West Kalimantan, Indonesia
2023-10-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Transnational Chinese Religion as Shadow Infrastructure along the ‘Maritime Silk Road’: The Case of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Date/Time: October 10, 2023, 18:00 – 19:30 (HK time)Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)

ABSTRACTIn Singkawang, West Kalimantan the local Chinese Indonesian community is currently engaged in a major Chinese Religious revival in which inter-ethnic spirit-medium practices figure strongly. At the center of this revival are processes of recreating Chinese Indonesian identities in relation to both highly localized gods, spirits and territorially-grounded senses of belonging and re-sinicization processes that relate to transnational circulations of Chinese language education and media circulations within a greater Chinese cultural sphere. As China rises as a global superpower, manifesting political and economic hegemony through investments in ambitious infrastructural development projects along the territories within the imagined Belt Road Initiative (BRI), including the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) which runs through Indonesia, members of this socially, culturally and geographically peripheral community are realigning themselves symbolically and imaginatively with China as a social-historical force in the world. In this presentation, I will explain how this realignment rarely involves participating in large physical infrastructural projects of the BRI, but instead involves participating in the figurative and symbolic aspects of transnational Chinese Religion. I will explain how, alongside the material infrastructure, the figurative aspects of Chinese Religion act as a shadow infrastructure which transports practitioners into a transnational realm of stories, myths, and politics in which divine bureaucrats demonstrate their power (Man. shen and ling) by interacting with and intervening in peoples’ daily lives. By doing so, I hope to expand our understand of the concepts of both infrastructure and religion, and place into a productive tension concrete forms of infrastructural development and more figurative and imaginary dimensions of religious infrastructure.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERDr. Emily Hertzman is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research focuses on mobilities, identities, religious practices, and politics. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto (2017) and her MA (2006) and BA (2001) from the University of British Columbia. Her theoretical and empirical research is centered around understanding how peoples’ concepts of home and belonging are transformed under broader shifting social conditions, including mobility, democratization, transnationalism, economic restructuring, and liberalization, as well as religious encounters and personal identity construction processes. In 2020, Dr. Hertzman joined the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore as a Research Fellow in the Religion and Globalization Cluster. She is one of the editors of the book CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age, (University of Hawai’i Press, 2023). She has published in Global Networks, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Indonesia, Journal of Chinese Overseas and HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.
ORGANIZER
Organizer: ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, under the RGC Research Fellowship “Chinese Modernity and Soft Power on the Belt and Road”.

Global China in a Religious World | BRINFAITH 2023 International Conference
2023-08-17 09:00 - 2023-10-28 23:59 | G/F Lecture Hall, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM
BRINFAITH 2023 International Conference
Global China in a Religious World

Discussions on the rise of Global China, through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and beyond, have focused on physical infrastructures, financial investments, commerce, and geopolitics. What about the religious dimension of China’s deepening entanglements with the world? Religion is central to the culture and national identity of most BRI and adjacent countries, and, often, their political system and ideology as well. These religions include Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, among others. What are the religious implications and consequences of these circulations and frictions? The growing presence of China in countries of the Global South may increase the importance of China in the imagination, strategies, or missionizing goals of religious organizations, movements, political parties and ideologies in those countries. These imaginations, strategies and identity formations may be inflected by a resurfacing of historical imaginations and networks. At the same time, growing links offer opportunities for the international expansion of Chinese religious and spiritual networks and organizations. This increased circulation may impact on China’s religious ecology and complicate China’s internal religious policy as well as its management of religious exchanges in the service of diplomacy and soft power.
This international conference, composed of 3 sessions, will bring together scholars working on different regions and disciplines, to map out the contours of the religious dimensions and implications of Global China, through discussion of empirical studies and testing of different analytical frameworks.

SESSION I [by invitation ONLY]
This session is organised by Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS), The University of Hong Kong.

Session I - Day I - Aug 17
Day I – Aug 17, 2023
@G/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
9:00 – 9:15 Opening Remarks by David A. Palmer, Professor
(Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Dept of Sociology; Convenor of the Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU.)

Panel I – AfricaChair: Ning Rundong || Discussant: Justin Haruyama
9:15 – 10:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Chinese Missionary Movements and the Spread of Christianity in Africa: A Study of the Impact of BRI on Religious Networks in Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria by Adedeji Aina Ademola (Obafemi Awolowo University)
Commodifying religion in West Africa: A deconstruction of the syncretic formula of China by Wincharles Coker & Botchway, De-Valera N. Y. M. (University of Cape Coast)
The Role of China’s Contractors in the Construction of Churches in African: Is BRI serving Christian Evangelization Mission? by Conrad John Masabo (University of Dar es Salaam)
10:15 – 11:00 Discussion
======11:00 – 11:15 Break ======
Panel II – Iran and TurkeyChair: Yana Pak || Discussant: Chan Kim-kwong
11:15 – 12:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Between Religious Principalism and Pragmatism: Islamic Republic of Iran and Popular Republic of China by Arash Reisinezhad (University of Tehran) & Marzbali, Mohsen Abbaszadeh (University of Mazandaran)
“The Role of Religion in China-Iran relations (1979-2023): What are the larger Implications”? by Manochehr Dorraj (Texas Christian University)
Tracing China in the Turkish Islamist Imagination by Birol Baskan
12:15 – 13:00 Discussion
======= 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch =======
Panel III – IndonesiaChair: Michel Chambon || Discussant: Emily Hertzman
14:00 – 15:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Is China an Islamophobic Country? Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Battle of Narrative within the Muslim Community in Indonesia by Harry Bawono (National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia)
“I Love Kung Fu Hustle Movie”: How the Transformation of Chinese Religiosity Affects Indonesian Culture by Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad (Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh)
“We Are Indigenous”: The Eco-Religious Narratives of Indonesian Confucians for National and Global Citizenship by Krisharyanto Umbu Deta (Gadjah Mada University)
15:00 – 15:45 Discussion
====== End of Day I ======

Session I - Day II - Aug 18
Day II – Aug 18, 2023
@G/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
9:00 – 9:15 Opening Remarks by Chen Zhiwu, Professor
(Chair Professor of Finance, Cheng Yu-Tung Professor in Finance, Director, Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong)

Panel IV – Malaysia & PhilippinesChair: Jules Liu || Discussant: Orlando Woods
9:15 – 10:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Unpacking China’s halal trade networks in the Belt and Road Initiative: a political economy approach by Brian U. Doce (Murdoch University)
The Question of Allegiance for Chinese Salafi Muslim Immigrants in Malaysia by JIANG Xiaokun (Utrecht University)
Indigenous Cosmologies and Religiosity: How Indigenous Groups Mobilize Against Chinese Dams in the Philippines by Alvin Camba (University of Denver)
10:15 – 11:00 Discussion
====== 11:00 – 11:15 Break ======
Panel V- Arab WorldChair: Orlando Woods || Discussant: Cao Nanlai
11:15 – 12:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Healing Ties: China’s Health Silk Road and Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Arab Gulf by Wang Yuting (American University of Sharjah)
Han Chinese Conversion to Islam in Dubai: Unexpected Consequences of Global China Encountering Cosmopolitan Islam by Jacqueline Armijo (University of Hawaii at Hilo, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
12:00-12:30 Discussion
====== 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch ======
Panel VI – Cambodia and ThailandChair: Anna Iskra || Discussant: Michel Chambon
13:30 – 14:30 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Mandarin Education, Chinese Influence, and Taiwanese Cooperation: The Rapid Growth of Yiguandao in Cambodia over the Past Decade by Richard Ping-i Li (National Chengchi University)
Buddhism as Spectacle: Performing Nationhood in Cambodia and China by Enhua Zhang (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
The Giant Guanyin that Never Was: The BRI and Religion in the Realpolitik of South Thailand by Joseba Estévez (University of Hong Kong)
14:30-15:00 Discussion
====== 15:00 – 15:15 Break ======
15:15 – 16:15 General discussion and closing
remarks by Tansen Sen and David Palmer

SESSION II [Online]
This session is co-organised by Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore via ZOOM.

Session II - Day I - Aug 22
Day I // Aug 22, 2023
12:00 – 12:15 Opening Remarks

Panel I – MyanmarChair: Emily Hertzman || Discussant: Qian Junxi
12:15 – 13:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Achieving Magnificence (Zhuangyan) through Becoming an Ideal Patron: Merit Making and Loving-kindness in the Trade of Marble Buddhist Images across the Myanmar-China Border by Beiyin Deng (Arizona State University)
Trans-regionalisation, Cross-border Monks and Local Buddhist Devotees: The Revival of Theravada Buddhism in China’s Southwestern Borderland Xishuangbanna by Zhen Ma (Dali University, Yunnan)
13:00 – 13:30 Discussion
====================
Panel II – Chinese religious circulations: China, Southeast Asia and BeyondChair: Joseba Estévez || Discussant: Huang Weishan
18:00 – 19:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
The Transformation and Transmission of Chinese Shigandang Belief in Modern Vietnam by Hoang-Yen Nguyen (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCMC)
State, Space and Identity: Cantonese death ritual in contemporary Singapore by CHAN Hong Yin Donald (Tel Aviv University)
Migrants, Monks, Monasteries: A Study of the Buddhist Networks between China and Malaya by GOOI Ming Kuan (University of Malaya)
Struggle of identity of transnational Buddhist meditation practices in Contemporary China by LAU, Ngar-sze (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
19:15 – 20:15 Discussion
====== 20:15 – 20:30 Break ======
Panel III – AfricaChair: Ning Rundong || Discussant: Li Ji
20:30 – 21:30 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Muslim Identity and Religious Encounter of Hui Muslims in Dakar, Senegal by Deng Zheyuan (University of Florida)
Buddhist Networks and Discourses in and outside Madagascar by Xuefei Shi (Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway)
Assembling Shaolin in Zambia: Chinese Migrants, Philanthropy and Cultural Heritage by Hangwei Li (China Agricultural University)
21:30 – 22:15 Discussion
====== End of Day I ======

Session II - Day II - Aug 23
Day II // – Aug 23, 2023
Panel IV – Chinese Popular Religion in South and Southeast Asia before and after BRI: Religious Developments along the “Maritime Silk Road”Chair: Huang Weishan || Discussant: Anna Iskra
12:00 – 13:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Living with the Yinfrastructure: Shadow Infrastructure of Chinese Popular Religion in West Kalimantan, Indonesia by Emily Hertzman (National University of Singapore)
Weaving for gods: Eng Dian Huat and the Sino-Singapore Teochew Embroidery Trade, 1950-60s by Yu Kang & Wang Sisi (National University of Singapore)
From Replicating Hometown to Tracing Roots: A Case Study of Singapore’s Ling Hong Tong Temple by Wu Qi (National University of Singapore)
The Chinese temples, monasteries, regional associations and cemeteries of Kolkata: evidence from epigraphy by Kenneth Dean (National University of Singapore)
13:15 – 13:55 Discussion
====== 13:55– 14:15 Break ======
Panel V – Islam and transnational connections in ChinaChair: Chan Kim-kwong || Discussant: Janice Hyeju Jeong
14:15 – 15:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Money is Everything: Ineffective Islamic Constraints in the Labor Market by Wen Meizhen (Zhejiang Normal University)
The Struggle to Join the Ummah: Islamic Education and Cleric Training under the Newest Religious Regulations in China by Yang Xiaozhen (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
15:00 – 15:30 Discussion
====================
Panel VI – Temples and BRI connectionsChair: Qian Junxi || Discussant: Tansen Sen
18:00 – 19:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
In Search of a Persian Past in Yangzhou: The ‘New Silk Road’ Initiative and China-Iran Relations by Pascale Bugnon (University of Geneva)
One belt, One road, One old horse- Trans-cultural Buddhist Heritage in China’s oldest Temple by Kai Shmushko (Leiden UniversityTel Aviv University)
Working on the Wonder – Guanyin devotionalism and transnational spiritual efficacy in contemporary secular China and beyond by Weishan Huang (Hong Kong Shue Yan University)
19:00 – 19:45 Discussion
====== 19:45 – 20:00 Break ======
20:00 – 21:00 Closing Remarks

SESSION III [Online, open for public registration]
This session is co-organised by Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai via ZOOM.

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Session III - Day I - Oct 27
Day I // Oct 27, 2023
12:00 – 12:15 Opening Remarks

Panel I – Religious and Secular Utopias and ChinaChair: Yana Pak || Discussant: David A. Palmer
12:15 – 13:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
When Sacred Fire Meets Revolution: Female Workers’ Evening Schools in 1930s Shanghai by Miao Feng (The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
W.E.B. Du Bois on China and Pan-African Utopia: From Afro-Orientalism to Afrofuturism by Saheed Yinka Adejumobi (Seattle University)
BRI Projects as Secular Faiths by Pengfei Hou (Xinjiang University)
13:15 – 14:00 Discussion
====================

Panel II – Sri Lanka and PakistanChair: Orlando Woods || Discussant: Bhagya Senaratne
18:00 – 19:00 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Buddhist Diplomacy of China: From Religious Diplomacy to Economic Partnership – A Sri Lankan Experience by Anuththaradevi Widyalankara (University of Colombo-Sri Lanka)
China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Sri Lanka: ‘Buddhist Diplomacy’ as a Strategic Soft Diplomacy Tool by Asantha Senevirathna (General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University)
Religious Dimensions of China’s Global Rise in Pakistan: Circulations, Frictions, and Implications by Sania Muneer (SOAS University of London)
19:00 – 19:45 Discussion

[The Panel III has been cancelled.]

====== End of Day I ======

Session III - Day II - Oct 28
[]Day II // Oct 28, 2023
12:00 – 12:15 Opening Remarks

Panel IV – India and Himalayan regionChair: Qian Junxi || Discussant: Tansen Sen
12:15 – 13:15 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
Contesting Footprints of Buddha: India and Japan’s Responses to China’s Buddhist Diplomacy in South Asia by Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya (University of Delhi)
Mapping the Terrain of an Alienated Borderland: Territorial disputes in the Eastern Himalayas and the re-invention of Buddhism by Georgios T. Halkias (The University of Hong Kong)
China’s Religious Promotion Along the Borders in the Trans-Himalaya Region by Abhigya Langeh (Central University of Jammu)
13:15 – 14:00 Discussion
====================

Panel V – Islamic worldChair: Bhagya Senaratne || Discussant: Maria Adele Carrai
18:00 – 18:45 Paper presentations and discussants’ comments
China and the Islamic World: A Religious Perspective in the New Cold War by Jianping Wang (Shanghai Normal University)
Religiosity and Attitudes towards China in the Arab World: An Analysis of the Arab Barometer Survey Data by Marko Jovanović (Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia)
18:45 – 19:30 Discussion
====== 19:30 – 19:45 Break ======

19:45 – 20:45 Closing Remarks

ORGANIZER
Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS), The University of Hong Kong
CO-ORGANIZERS
Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore;
Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai

CONVENOR
Prof. David A. Palmer (Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong)
CO-CONVENORS
Prof. Tansen Sen (Center on Global Asia, NYU Shanghai)
Dr Michel Chambon (Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore)
Dr Emily Hertzman (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore)

The conference is generously supported by the project Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road (BRINFAITH) at the Asian Religious Connections research cluster of the HKIHSS, University of Hong Kong.

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Religious Organization Ecology: Exploring Schisms in High-Tension Religious Groups
2023-07-25 12:00 - 13:30 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
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Religious Organization Ecology: Exploring Schisms in High-Tension Religious Groups
Date/Time:July 25, 2023, 12:00 noon (HKT)Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Registration Link: https://bit.ly/ASIARJuly25

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have attempted to synthesize religious economies, new institutional, and organizational ecology theories into a single perspective. Religious organization ecology theory proposes to be that synthesis and attempts to address meso-level weaknesses in cultural studies of lived religion. By analyzing schisms within high tension religious groups (otherwise known as “cults,” “new religious movements,” or “emergent religious groups”), the importance of church to sect mechanics, authority and doctrine, and niche conditions become apparent. These findings support ROE theory expectations of schism, suggesting that this research program may be a good way to address positivist charges of a lack of empiricism. Finally, the contribution of ROE to the cultural sociological study of religion is discussed. Future studies are needed to verify the theoretical improvements posited by ROE.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERSteven Foertsch is an award-winning third-year doctoral student in the sociology of religion program at Baylor University and research assistant at the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) with experience in research, policy, and working for IGOs/NGOs. From experiences ranging from AmeriCorps to the United Nations, he focuses on socio-ontological belief. He has conducted many studies to get at these religious and political beliefs– varying from Middle Age Papal Hegemony, Satanism, Wampanoag powwows, and AI chatbots to contemporary Christofascism. With this background, Steven is looking forward to continuing his research into the intersections of belief, social and political philosophy, emerging and New Age religious groups, political economy, deviance, and pluralism.
HOSTDr Paul Joosse (Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong)
ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS

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Time and the River: Temporal and Material Flows and the Potency of Life on the Mekong
2023-04-26 19:30 - 21:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Time and the River: Temporal and Material Flows and the Potency of Life on the Mekong
ABSTRACTDams suggest progress – they are a way of arresting the flow of water (and that which it contains) to convert its potential energy into something useable. But in so doing, dams reconfigure the multiple lives and non-lives within which riparian residents live. But this is a transformation, not simply an erasure: as multiple scholars have shown, modernity gives rise to new magics, and new ways of being. This lecture explores these new ways of negotiating power and potency on a changed river, asking what new horizons open as old ones close, and exploring how these new potentials disturb webs of being and dwelling on the river.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERAndrew Alan Johnson is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University. He is the author of Mekong Dreaming: Life and Death along a Changing River (Duke University Press, 2022) and Ghosts of the New City: Spirits, Urbanity and the Ruins of Progress in Urban Northern Thailand (University of Hawaii Press, 2014).
ORGANIZERS-ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, under the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G)-NYU Shanghai Centre for Global Asia

Buddhism in Russia: Introspection of Spirituality and New Modalities
2023-04-18 19:00 - 21:00 | G/F Lecture Hall, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM
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Buddhism in Russia: Introspection of Spirituality and New Modalities
Date/Time:April 18, 2023, 7:00 – 9:00 pm (HK time)Language: English
Venue: G/F Lecture Hall, May Hall, HKU & via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Registration Link: http://bit.ly/RussianBuddhism

ABSTRACTBuddhism is regarded as a traditional faith in Russia and is part of the national spiritual tradition. Buddhism is a traditional religion for three regions of Russia: Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia. In the 17th century, Vajrayāna (Lamaism) Buddhism was brought to Russia by the cattle-breeding Buryats and Kalmyks who had come from Dzungaria (China) to the lower Volga. In 1741, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna recognized Lamaism in Buryatia and arranged for the formation of Buddhist monasteries. This date is considered the date of official recognition of Buddhism in Russia.
During the Soviet period, the Buddhist clergy suffered from persecution and many lamas lost their land rights. Schools and monasteries were shut down, temples were robbed, and their material possessions were confiscated and put in museums.
At the same time, Russian intellectuals used Buddhism as a way to express their discontent with the social system and as a way to escape the harshness of reality. Unofficial Buddhist communities began to develop in the USSR and then Russia. Nowadays, Buddhism is present in Russia in a variety of ways: as an organized institution, unifying the traditional Vajrayāna communities; non-institutional Buddhism in the form of small groups of Mahayana and Theravada; lay Buddhism in the form of a philosophical and everyday cultural tradition. In recent years, the government has been offering substantial backing to Buddhist clerics in their educational pursuits.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERAlexey MASLOV is a professor and the Director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies of the Moscow State University, as well as the President of the Foundation for promoting Buddhist Education and Research. He is a renowned scholar in Asian and Chinese studies in Russia, a governmental expert in East Asian relations, a visiting professor of several European and Chinese Universities, and he has published more than 20 books, including translations of Buddhist scriptures.
ORGANIZERS•ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, under the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G)
•HKU Centre of Buddhist Studies

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Ways To Be and Not to Be: Reading LaoZhuangZi PhiloPoetically
2023-04-18 12:00 - 13:30 | May Hall 201 AND via Zoom (Registration is required.)
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Ways To Be and Not to Be: Reading LaoZhuangZi PhiloPoetically
Date/Time:April 18, 2023, 12:00 – 13:30 pm (HK time)Language: English
Venue: May Hall 201 AND via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Registration Link: http://bit.ly/KyooTalk

ABSTRACTReady? Set, here we go again.
“Pathways” (Dao道) in classical Daoist discourses, not really “ready-made,” tend to make themselves anew quite readily, all the way through; “way-making (dao) that can be put into words,” “eloquently couched” as such (信言不美 美言不信Daodejing 道德經CH 8), “is not really way-making” (道可道非常道), says the old sage (老子), who also says that “those who know will not say it, and those who say would not know it” (知者不言 言者不知). What is he saying? Dao is effable and ineffable. So what? What are we supposed to do?
Today, which GPS will take us to this Daoist “door of all wonders” (衆妙)? What kind of thresholding, not just gatekeeping, would be possible? Taking the auto-poetic generativity of such good old Daoist paradoxes and ironies as a philosophically renewable energy, this seminar, the first in the series, on the Daoist PhiloPoetics of transitive ambiguation introduces ways to reboot Laozi (老子) and Zhuangzi (庄子) translingually, focusing on their metamorphic—metaphorical and metaphysical—avant-gardism, their waiting (weiding未定 Zhuangzi 04) game.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERKyoo Lee aka Q is a philosopher, writer, art critic and a Professor of Philosophy and Gender Studies at the City University of New York, who works widely in the interwoven fields of the Arts and Humanities. The author of Reading Descartes Otherwise (FUP) and a forthcoming book on visual philopoetics (MIT Press), she is a recipient of faculty fellowships from Cambridge University, KIAS and the Mellon Foundation among others, and her genre-bending writings that explore co-generative links between critical theory and creative prose have appeared in Flash Art, Jacket 2, Randian, The White Review, etc., as well as numerous academic venues. Actively engaged in various editorial (currently, philoSOPHIA, SUNY Press), curatorial and public intellectual projects, recently she served as the editor for the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022, a judge for the Poetry Translation Prizes at the Poetry Translation Center (London) and PEN America (NYC), and the faculty leader for the Mellon Seminar at the CUNY Graduate Center, “mp3: merging poetry, philosophy, performativity.”
ORGANIZERASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

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The Belt and Road Initiative and Spirit Mediums: The Lower Sesan 2 Dam and Sacred Space in Northeastern Cambodia
2023-03-27 09:30 - 11:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
The Belt and Road Initiative and Spirit Mediums: The Lower Sesan 2 Dam and Sacred Space in Northeastern Cambodia
ABSTRACTThe Lower Sesan 2 Dam (LS2) is the largest and most controversial hydropower dam ever developed in Cambodia. The 400 MW capacity project, which blocks both the Sesan and Srepok Rivers in Stung Treng Province, northeastern Cambodia, was only completed by a Chinese company, Hydrolancang International Energy Company, in 2018, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Here, I consider the relationship between LS2 and sacred spaces of rural ethnic Lao people, including how spirit mediums and the associated belief systems of local people have been impacted by LS2. Female spirit mediums have contested the LS2 since before its construction began, and have also been directly affected by the dam. Adopting a feminist political approach, the argument is that apart from having potentially important material impacts, dams such as LS2 also serve to alter nature-society relations through variously affecting spirit mediums, their practices, and beliefs associated with spirits.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERDr. Ian G. Baird is a Professor of Geography and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most of work relates to political ecology and Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. His most recent book is Rise of the Brao: Ethnic Minorities in Northeastern Cambodia during Vietnamese Occupation (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020).
ORGANIZER
Organizer: ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, under the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G)

From Faith Statements to Faith Stakeholders – The Growth of the Faith Environment Movement Worldwide | by Martin Palmer
2023-03-22 16:30 - 18:20 | Knowles Building 223, The University of Hong Kong
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Special Lecture of CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change
From Faith Statements to Faith Stakeholders – The Growth of the Faith Environment Movement Worldwide
Date/Time:
March 22, 2023, 16:30 – 18:20 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Knowles Building 223, The Univerisity of Hong Kong
Registration is required (except for CCHU9014 students): https://bit.ly/2023March22
ABSTRACT
The world’s faiths run 50% of all schools; a third of all universities; more than a third of all medical facilities; own about 8% of the habitable surface of the planet; and are probably the fifth largest investing group in the world. In 1986 at the request of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as International president of WWF, Martin Palmer organised the first ever meeting between the world’s major faiths and the environmental movement. Nearly forty years on, every major faith in the world has created environmental statements based on their beliefs and teachings. Since then, hundreds of thousands of temples, mosques, churches etc now run environmental projects. The UN has described the faith environment movement as “the largest civil society environmental movement in the world.”
But faith groups aren’t just moral voices – they are also direct stakeholders. In 2019 The Duke of Edinburgh and Martin Palmer founded Faithinvest to work with all the major faiths on helping them be Faith-Consistent in their Investments. Four years on, many faiths are now reviewing their investment policies and demanding better environmental and sustainable opportunities to put their teachings into practice through their assets and investments.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Martin Palmer is co-founder with HRH The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh of the Alliance on Religions and Conservation (ARC), and founding President and CEO of Faithinvest. He is a Fellow of the Club of Rome and Special Advisor to many faith networks as well as to the UN and World Bank.
Martin studied Theology, Religious Studies and Chinese at Cambridge (1973-6) after a year as a volunteer in Hong Kong from 1972 -3 where he learnt to read Classical Chinese and speak Cantonese. Martin is a regular contributor to BBC programmes and has written over twenty books on faiths. He is one of the foremost translators of Chinese Classics, including the Dao De Jing, the Yijing and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, most of these for Penguin Classics.
He is an active Anglican Lay Preacher and is married to the writer and former SCMP journalist Victoria Finlay.

ORGANIZERS
Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster (ASIAR), HKIHSS, HKU
Center of Buddhist Studies, HKU
Faith and Global Engagement, HKIHSS, HKU
The New Mindscape (CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change | HKU Common Core)

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Africa in and beyond China’s BRI: Development and Security in a New Era of Global Competition
2023-02-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Africa in and beyond China’s BRI: Development and Security in a New Era of Global Competition
ABSTRACTThis seminar will examine Africa in the evolving BRI with special interest in security. It will firstly take stock of Africa in the BRI at a time of change and questions about the trajectory of a transcontinental nature that has been repositioning Africa’s previous salience in China’s foreign policy in the global South. Almost all African states have signed up to the BRI, which has also been integrated into the official China-Africa cooperation framework. In practice, however, the BRI remains a work in progress. Second, and drawing on such cases as Mali and South Sudan, it will examine the multifaceted theme of security in Africa’s engagement with the BRI and in terms of how China’s multi-level engagement has been evolving. In doing so, particular attention will be dedicated to examining China’s official rationale concerning the efficacy of economic development as key to overcoming security challenges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERDr. Daniel Large is Associate Professor at Central European University, Vienna, Austria, and a Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute, Nairobi. His book publications include China and Africa: The New Era (Polity, 2021), and New Directions in the Study of Africa and China (Routledge, 2018), co-edited with Chris Alden, and recent journal articles include “China, Africa and the 2021 Dakar FOCAC.” African Affairs (2022) and, with Lina Benabdallah, “‘The Key to solving all problems’? Unpacking China’s development-as-security approach in Mali.” Third World Quarterly (2022).
ORGANIZER
Organizer: ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, under the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G)
Co-organizer: NYU Shanghai Center for Global Asia

Healing Our World 療癒我們的家園 | World Religion Day 2023
2023-02-05 14:00 - 17:00
[Re-activated]
World Religion Day 2023
Healing Our World: Spiritual Inspirations, Conversations, Actions
療癒我們的家園：知—行—共勉
Interfaith dialogue, devotions and music with members of different religious and non-religious communities in HK. Come to share and learn about healing our world at the personal, community and planetary levels
Date: Feb 5 (Sun), 2023
Time: 2 – 5 pm (HKT)
Language: English
Venue: EY Wavespace, 22/F Citic Tower, 20 Tim Mei Avenue, Central, Hong Kong.
Format: Prayers, singing & chanting performances + Interfaith dialogue + Panel sharings
Register TODAY: Email <secretariat@bahai.hk> or call +852 2367 6407 for registration.
(Limited quotas are available, first come first serve)*Further details will be sent to you upon successful registration

Bringing local values into the ESG framework in Asia | Green Finance Forum
2023-01-16 16:30 - 18:30 | Hybrid – HKU Social Sciences Chamber (Jockey Club Tower, 11/F) and via Zoom
BRINFAITH | ESG BRI
Green Finance Forum: Bringing local values into the ESG framework in Asia
Opening Remark:Dr Ma Jun, Co-chairman, G-20 Sustainable Finance Study Group; Chairman, Hong Kong Green Finance Association

Keynote Speeches
The changing definitions of ESG investment in Asia
Speaker: Anthony Cheung, Managing Director, ESG at Polymer Capital; Convenor of Green Finance, Board Governor at Friends of the Earth (HK)
Abstract: ESG has gained prominence in Asia including Hong Kong for a relatively short period of time. Yet, its definitions and applications are already shifting. Through examining a selection of latest initiatives and regulations, this introduction will illustrate how the definitions of ESG investment are changing in Hong Kong and across the region and what are the key implications.

Bringing local values into the ESG framework: the WeValue InSitu method
Speaker: Prof Marie Harder, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai
Abstract: A significant challenge for ESG systems is to find ways to obtain useful indicators about local shared values, which are considered very difficult to elicit in an authentic, communicable, and useful form which also allows comparisons across localities. In this presentation we introduce the method named WeValue InSitu, which takes groups of local persons through a crystallization process whereby their lived-values are made more explicit through specially designed cycles of meaning-making dialogic activity. We will use illustrations from cities such as Shanghai and Vienna and BRI countries in Asia and Africa studies to explore the usefulness of the WeValue InSitu approach for use in ESG.

Respondents
Prof Tarani Chandola, Director, Methods Hub, Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU

Lufei Yang, SDG Finance Lead, Asia, UNOPS

Joy Song, Co-chair of ESG Disclosure and Integration Working Group, HKGFA

Roundtable Discussion

Co-organisers
BRINFAITH, ASIAR research cluster, HKIHSS, HKU
The Methods Hub, Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU

Supporting Institutions (no particular order)
Hong Kong Financial Services Institute
Hong Kong Green Finance Association
LL.M. Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, Faculty of Law, HKU
Centre for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai
Friends of Earth (HK)
The Hong Kong Independent Non-Executive Director Association
CPA Australia

Sailors and Slaves in Medieval Maritime Asia: from baghdād to baghpūr
2022-11-16 20:00 - 21:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Sailors and Slaves in Medieval Maritime Asia: from baghdād to baghpūr
ABSTRACTThis talk presents some of the preliminary ideas and findings of Dr. Ha Guangtian’s ongoing project which examines the role of multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-lingual sailors and slaves in facilitating Muslim trans-regional trade in medieval maritime Asia. He asks what is entailed if we are to shift our attention away from trade and diplomacy; and how we are to reconstruct an alternative subaltern trans-regionalism where race, religion, and class intersect — in ways that may compel us to reconsider current paradigms centred on the trans-Atlantic world.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERDr. Ha Guangtian is Assistant Professor of Religion at Haverford College and the author of Fragile Transcendence: Sound and Saint in Sino-Sufism, to be published in September 2021. He is currently working on a new project that examines the entwinement of sex and slavery in the making of Islam in maritime Asia.

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

Greening the Belt and Road: Risk Mitigation, Dispute Prevention and Resolution
2022-09-14 10:30 - 12:00 | online via Zoom or in person (11/F, Academic Conference Room, Faculty of Law, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU)
BRINFAITH | Green BRI
Greening the Belt and Road: Risk Mitigation, Dispute Prevention and Resolution
Keynote Speech: Green Investment Principles Along the Belt and Road
About the SpeakerDr. Ma Jun is currently the Chairman of the Green Finance Committee, China Society for Finance and Banking, and the former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China. He led the drafting of China’s Green Finance Guidelines (2015-16) and facilitated global consensus on scaling up green finance under the G20 framework (2016-18). As a leader in the field of green and sustainable finance, Dr. Ma Jun also serves as the sustainable finance special adviser of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Director of Beijing Green Finance Association, the Chairman and President of Hong Kong Green Finance Association, and many other public welfare duties.

Discussants SpeechesDeveloping Holistic and Locally Based Frameworks for Greening the BRI
Speaker: Prof. David Palmer, HKIHSS/Dept of Sociology

Belt & Road Initiative and Dispute ResolutionSpeaker: Edward Liu, MH, Partner, Haiwen & Partners LLP

Roundtable: Greening the BRI-risk mitigation, dispute resolution and prevention
Discussants:Dr. Ma JunProf. David PalmerMr. Edward LiuProf. Shahla Ali
Rundown:10:30am – 10:35am Welcome and Introduction by Prof. Ali10:35am – 11:05am Presentation by Dr. Ma11:05am – 11:15am Presentation by Prof. Palmer11:15am – 11:25am Presentation by Mr. Liu11:25am – 11:35am Presentation by Prof. Ali11:35am – 12:00nn Open discussion/Q&A

Iran and BRI: A Cultural Perspective of Strategic Cooperation
2022-09-13 13:00 - 14:00 | via Google Meet (Registration Required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Iran and BRI: A Cultural Perspective of Strategic Cooperation
ABSTRACTIran and China’s relationship is following a long tradition of exchanges that can be traced back to ancient times. Certainly, when studying the long tradition of Iran and China, we can perceive that the Silk Road was not only linking cities like Xi’an and Isfahan for trade but also facilitated, the exchange of ideas, sciences, education, and intellectual exchanges. One of the most important aspects of Iran and China relations in ancient times is religion. Persian religions including Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism were spread to China by the Iranian elites who have also played an important role in non-Iranian religions in this regard. The relationship between China and Iran has intertwined in history as well as the old and new Silk Road projects and BRI. Indeed, cultural contacts and mutual influence via the Silk Road have been robust throughout the centuries. My speech proposes a new understanding of the old relationship between the two nations in the present cultural and political climate.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERDr. Alireza Khoshrou is currently a senior research associate in China Studies in the Research Department, at the Islamic Cultural and Relation Organization, Iran. He had served as Head of East Asian Religions Studies at the International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (ICRO). Khoshrou is a member of the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran and he has written extensively on cross- cultural issues in East Asia and China. Khoshrou graduated from Jilin University. He has been invited as a visiting scholar to several universities, including Chinese Hong Kong University, Waseda University, Jilin University, Shandong University, University of Ljubljana, etc. Dr. Khoshrou’s academic works and research focus on Modern Confucianism, Chinese Culture and Religious Studies and Public Diplomacy.
ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

Magic Power Reconfigured: Chinese Popular Religion in Cities
2022-05-25 14:00 - 15:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Magic Power Reconfigured: Chinese Popular Religion in Cities

ABSTRACTThis talk analyzes how divine magic power is reconfigured in the urban setting. The speaker will discuss how a spirit medium, who moved from the countryside in Taiwan to an urban area, refashioned the elements of village religion to cope with the fast life rhythms of adherents who are scattered across the city and no longer share a unified dwelling space. The speaker will examine the spirit medium, the core shrine members, and occasional petitioners, and show how affective and psychological connections have become increasingly important in binding urban adherents to deities. Distinct from Western religious individualism premised on individual preference and freedom of will, the contemporary popular religion in Taiwan is ingrained with kinship intimacy.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERWei-Ping Lin received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Cambridge University. She is a Professor at National Taiwan University. She was affiliated with the Harvard-Yenching Institute in 2005-06 and 2017-18, and with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University in 2012-13. Her interests include religion (including topics related to material culture, spirit mediums, and urban religious transformation), kinship, and imagination. She is the author of Materializing Magic Power: Chinese Popular Religion in Villages and Cities (Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), and Island Fantasia: Imagining Subjects on the Military Frontline between China and Taiwan (Cambridge University Press). She also edited Mediating Religion: Music, Image, Object and New Media (Taiwan University Press, 2018; in Chinese) and Ambience Contaminated: Sensory Experiences and the Boundary of Religion (Taiwan University Press, forthcoming; in Chinese).

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

“The Dharma Assembly”: Exploring a dynamic infrastructure for contemporary Han Chinese participation in Tibetan Buddhist monastic contexts
2022-05-10 13:00 - 14:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
“The Dharma Assembly”: Exploring a dynamic infrastructure for contemporary Han Chinese participation in Tibetan Buddhist monastic contexts
ABSTRACTDuring the first half of the twentieth century, all but a handful of intrepid Han Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism undertook the long and difficult journey to the Tibetan plateau. In the contemporary era, however, massively improved transport infrastructures mean that Tibetan sacred landscapes, monastery spaces and ritual gatherings are now important settings for contemporary Han Chinese involvement in Tibetan Buddhism. This talk explores a participatory infrastructure that has played an outsize role in facilitating, focusing, and fostering the visits of Han Chinese Buddhists to Tibetan monastic contexts in the past three decades: namely, the “Dharma assembly.” Drawing on fieldwork findings from the 2010s, I will discuss how Dharma assemblies – large scale multi-day ritual events – have been creatively and flexibly deployed to meet and mediate the needs of Tibetan lamas, their monasteries, and Chinese followers in a period of burgeoning cross-cultural religious encounter.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERCatherine Hardie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research lies at the intersection of the Tibetan and Chinese cultural worlds with a particular focus on contemporary Han Chinese involvement in Tibetan Buddhism. She completed her doctoral studies in anthropology at the University of Oxford in 2019 with the thesis titled “Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual Capital in Contemporary China.” She is currently working on her first book project as well as extending her research into Tibetan Buddhism in China with a GRF-funded project looking at the platform-based dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism on WeChat and Weibo. Her publication and translation activity to date has centred on Larung Gar, a preeminent Tibetan Buddhist institution and religious settlement in Eastern Tibet. A forthcoming book chapter titled “Innovations in Lay Buddhist Education in New Era China’s Sinophone Tibetan Buddhist Milieu” examines Larung Gar’s impactful and innovative digitally-mediated Buddhist outreach in the Han Chinese world during the culminating decade of China’s reform era (2006-2015).

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

"Without ritual, there would be no ethnic culture": Religion and changing Chinese diasporic identity in Vietnam
2022-04-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
“Without ritual, there would be no ethnic culture”: Religion and changing Chinese diasporic identity in Vietnam
ABSTRACTIn this talk, I will present a total of four case studies to analyse the transformations and hidden discourses of ethnic Chinese (người Hoa 華人) rituals dedicated to public gods. Vietnam’s ethnic Hoa communities have proactively taken advantage of their long-lasting folk religions and ritual system to reserve and further the values of maintaining ethnic cultural identity and developing inter-ethnic exchanges.
With their post-war economic status in decline, Vietnam’s ethnic Chinese have been learning to use their cultural traditions to secure their position in the local society. As a result, the Confucian concept of “Without ritual, there would be no morality” 道德禮儀, 非禮不成 has now been re-formulated as “Without ritual, there would be no ethnic culture” 民族文化, 非禮不成 and been applied to adapt to local socio-political backgrounds in contemporary Vietnamese society.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERNguyen Ngoc Tho (阮玉詩) is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies, majoring in East Asian and Vietnamese folklore and social ritual studies. He concentrates on rituals, customs and daily life of the Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese peoples under the East Asian perspective. He obtained his PhD degree in Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, was a visiting scholar to Zhongshan University (PRC) in 2008, the Harvard-Yenching Institute during the 2017/2018 academic year, Harvard University’s Asia Centre in 2018/2019, Boston University in 2019/2020, and Brandeis University 2020/2021. Nguyen Ngoc Tho is the author of six books and more than 40 journal articles published in Vietnam and overseas. He holds the co-authorship of dozen other books, book chapters and journal articles. He is currently the Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City. He also serves as a member of the Standing Committee of The National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) of Vietnam (Council of Culture, Arts, and Tourism).

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

Old Roads, Religious Mobility, and Paradigms of Long-Distance Transmission: Epigraphic and Petroglyphic Complexes in a Transit Zone between Eurasian Frontiers
2022-02-25 10:00 - 11:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Old Roads, Religious Mobility, and Paradigms of Long-Distance Transmission: Epigraphic and Petroglyphic Complexes in a Transit Zone between Eurasian Frontiers
ABSTRACTGraffiti inscriptions and rock drawings mark an ancient network of capillary routes that connected Central Asian Silk Routes with major South Asian arteries for religious mobility and trade. The presentation aims to showcase developments of digital imaging and mapping techniques to document and promote the tangible cultural heritage of epigraphic and petroglyphic complexes in the Upper Indus transit zone of northern Pakistan. In order to better explain patterns of religious, cultural and commercial exchanges, paradigms of long-distance transmission provide useful alternatives to gradual diffusion by point-to-point contact expansion based on models of ‘Old Roads’ between Chinese, Central Asian and Indian empires.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERJason Neelis, Associate Professor of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University and author of Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010), conducts research on cross-cultural exchanges along intertwined networks for migration, trade, and religious and cultural transmission within and beyond the north-western borderlands of South Asia. He currently directs a project on Epigraphic and Petroglyphic Complexes in the Upper Indus region of northern Pakistan.

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

Hidden Treasures of the Silk Road— An Ontological Shift in Thinking of Things
2022-01-26 13:00 - 14:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
Hidden Treasures of the Silk Road—An Ontological Shift in Thinking of Things

ABSTRACTThis talk focuses on an ontological shift in thinking of small-sized Silk Road talismans and amulets. The true value of them has been neglected by previous studies. Among them, the Ordos Bronze Crosses, problematically identified as “Nestorian Crosses,” are central. The argument here is that these objects are better approached from a stance of agential realism that acknowledges them as active actant entangled in the Silk Road network. It is suggested that, as palimpsests, they participated, and continue participating in processes of (de)materialization through means of archaization, nomadic habitual engagement, Christian appropriation, and different material registers, etc. Moreover, in the shamanic worlds of the Silk Road, they were considered “alive” because they possessed nonhuman personhood. In conclusion, these hidden treasures disclose a new paradigm that returns things to their own narratives, from which an ontologically different understanding of the Silk Road emerges.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Andrea Jian Chen (PhD graduate of HKIHSS) is a part-time lecturer and honorary research associate in the Divinity School of Chung Chi College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research areas include the material cultures of the Silk Road and Steppe Road from pre-historic to Chinese imperial periods. Her interdisciplinary project focuses on small daily objects that reveal intense cross-regional and intercultural communication between Tibet, Inner Mongolia, the Indus Valley, and Central Asia. Her project has yielded peer-reviewed journal articles, contributions to anthologies and conference books, as well as invitations to embark on research trips and deliver public lectures. She teaches courses in the field of religious material culture studies and biblical archaeology.
ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

The New Mindscape Spiritual Training [First Phase~2022 Summer]
2022-01-17 - 2022-05-31 | HKU campus
The New Mindscape Spiritual Training Programme

Congratulations on completing CCHU 9014, Spirituality, Religion and Social Change!

During the course, you had the opportunity to reflect on many spiritual questions; you learned about different ideas and concepts; and you were exposed to different spiritual practices and social issues.

You might have a lot of questions about how all of this might apply to your own life. How do you cultivate your mindscape? How do we design our operating system?

While the course invited to reflect a little at a personal level, it was still primarily focused on providing academic knowledge and intellectual skills.

For those of you who are strongly motivated to further explore how to live a spiritual path, I’m starting a Spiritual Training Programme. This programme will include practical instruction in practices such as meditation, prayer, and skills for a healthy life; and reflection and discussion on applying spiritual principles to better handle academic work, social relationships, career, family, service, and carrying out our ideals to work for the betterment of humanity.

Part of the programme will involve individual guidance and practice based on your personal interests and situation, and part of it will involve group discussion and study.

The time commitment will be flexible and adjusted to each participant’s commitments and schedule. What is required is strong motivation for your spiritual growth and learning, and commitment to practice and reflection on your practice. You will need at least 20 minutes per day for individual spiritual practice (on your own) and time for occasional gatherings and workshops. The first phase of the programme will last until summer 2022.

The programme is open to those of any religious background or none. No beliefs are required but you need to be open to experimenting with an open mind. If you are religious with a regular worship or practice, we will arrange for the programme to be complementary to your current commitments.

A limited number of participants will be selected based on their motivations and goals. Zoom interviews may be held as part of the selection process. Please answer the questions below as part of your application. I look forward to hearing from you!

David A. Palmer

Application Method (DDL: Dec 10, 2021)
Please answer the following questions in PDF and email the document to asiar “at” hku.hk by Dec 10, 2021:
The email title should be “Your Name + The New Mindscape Spiritual Training Programme”

Basic Information
Your Name:
UID:
Your current study program at HKU:
Year of Study:
Your religious/faith background (if any):

Your reflections and motivations

What is your main takeaway from the course CCHU9014?

What is the biggest question you still have on your mind?

What is your goal for your personal life or spiritual growth in the coming half year?

Online Lecture | Spiritual Capital in Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism: A Sociological Perspective on Capacity Building
2022-01-11 22:00 - 23:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
Click to Register

Reimagining Capital | International learning Series
Spiritual Capital in Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism: A Sociological Perspective on Capacity Building
The sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu is one of the main sources for conceptualising spiritual capital. In this framework, spiritual capital would need to be understood through its expression in embodied habits or dispositions (habitus), which are shaped by the social structure (field).
In this talk, Prof. David A. Palmer (HKIHSS) will explore how this framework could apply to understand spiritual capital in the context of Chinese Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. This will require a critical inversion of some key aspects of Bourdieu’s conceptualisation, while being attentive to unique understandings and expressions of spiritual capital in different traditions.

Time: January 11, 2022, 10:00 pm (HK Time)
Language: English
Venue: Via ZOOM (Link to be provided after successful registration)

Click to Register

A Half-day Retreat @ HKU + Lung Fu Mountain: Demystifying Mindfulness from the perspectives of Psychology and Buddhism
2021-12-17 13:30 - 18:00 | HKU campus + Lung Fu Mountain, Hong Kong
Activity Highlights Recap: The Present is a present for you

A Half-day Retreat @ HKU + Lung Fu Mountain: Demystifying Mindfulness from the perspectives of Psychology and Buddhism

We spend most of our time learning about the outside world and try to change small parts of it, but most of us know very little about our own inner mindscape, and even less about how to change it for the better.

Mindfulness is one of the most simple yet also profound ways of knowing while transforming our own consciousness into one with more clarity, peace and happiness. It is a widespread practice across different religious traditions and nowadays being even widely applied in fields like psychology, medicine and education.
We now invite you to explore these questions together with us by joining this half-day retreat @HKU + Lung Fu Shan:

1. How can mindfulness connect us to a deeper understanding of self and meaning of life?
2. What insights can we gain if we could learn from both religious and non-religious approaches of mindfulness?
3. What will happen to our daily life and surrounding if we can practice mindfulness from the here and the now?

Date: Dec 17 (Friday) , 2021【Rescheduled】
Time: 13:30 pm-18:00 pm
Venue: HKU campus + Lung Fu Mountain*
Format: Talks + experiential practices in mindful breathing, sitting, stretching and hiking

(Limited quotas are available, first come first serve) *Further details will be sent to you upon successful registration

Activity Highlights Recap: The Present is a present for you

About our guest facilitators

Professor Shui-fong LAMB.A. (CUHK), PGDE (CUHK), M.Ed. (U. of Texas), Ph.D. (U. of Minnesota) Shui-fong LAM is a Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). She was a recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award from the HKU, the Outstanding International Scholar Award from the International School Psychology Association, and the Knowledge Exchange Award from the Social Sciences Faculty at HKU. She is now the Director of the Jockey Club “Peace and Awareness” Mindfulness Culture in Schools Initiative. It is her aspiration to promote mental health of students, teachers, and parents in Hong Kong through the training and research in mindfulness.

Plum Village Hong Kong Founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village began in 1982 as a small, rustic farmstead, and has today grown into Europe’s largest Buddhist monastery. “At Plum Village we weave mindfulness into all our daily activities, training ourselves to be mindful throughout the day: while eating, walking, working, or enjoying a cup of tea together. Plum Village is a home away from home, and a beautiful, nourishing, simple environment in which to cultivate the mind of awakening.” Its center in HK was founded in November 2008 as a non-profit making, charitable, religious and educational organization to promote the teachings and practice of Buddhism in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village, France.

About Event Co-curators

The New Mindscape
The New Mindscape provides a spiritual and intellectual space on re-imaging and re-building the self and society, with multimedia content (readings, videos and community events) developed from CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change, an HKU common core course taught by Prof. David A. Palmer who’s an anthropologist in exploring different realities.

The Art of Happiness
The Art of Happiness HKU is a community of inner discovery, mindfulness, and self-care. We rediscover happiness in psychology, philosophy, arts, and spirituality, and turn ideas into weekly practice.

New Visions for the New Globality: China’s BRI vs. Russia’s Greater Eurasian Space
2021-12-15 13:00 - 14:00 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
New Visions for the New Globality: China’s BRI vs. Russia’s Greater Eurasian Space
ABSTRACTThe Belt and Road Initiative has caused a lot of controversy in Russia’s expert discussion. Formally, Moscow is very enthusiastic about the BRI project and considers it a positive factor in international relations. Russian-Chinese relations have reached their peak politically and militarily, though at the same time, Russia has proposed its own, very complex integration project, which is formalized as the Eurasian Economic Union, which has been supported not only by a number of post-Soviet states but also by Singapore and Vietnam. Besides, Russia has also put forward its global initiative, the Great Eurasian Space, which is supposed to unite dozens of states based on common values, science and education systems, and common approaches to problem-solving. Although the BRI and the EAEU have signed a cooperation agreement, at first glance, the idea of the BRI and the Greater Eurasian Space may contradict each other. Thus, both China and Russia have global ideas that are equally close and distant from each other. We cannot exclude that Russia, supporting the BRI, is developing its own independent “third way,” which could manifest itself in a decade.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERAlexey Maslov, Ph.D., Professor, is one of the leading Russian scholars and internationally renowned experts in Chinese studies and Russian-Chinese relations. At the present moment, he holds the position of Head of the Institute of Asian and African Studies of the Moscow State University, the leading education center and think-tank on Asian Studies in Russia. His previous positions include Acting Director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Head of the School of Asian Studies at the HSE University (Moscow). Professor Maslov is a state-level expert in negotiations between Russia and China on the most important issues, and an expert for the Russian Council of International Relations. Professor Maslov graduated from Moscow State University and has been invited as a visiting professor to several leading universities, including New York State University, Heidelberg University, Cambridge University, Shanxi Normal University, etc. He has published 11 books on Chinese studies.

ORGANIZERThe event is organized by the CRF Project “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [BRINFAITH]” (RGC CRF HKU C7052-18G), which is hosted by the ASIAR – Asian Religious Connections Research Cluster in HKIHSS.

E-Workshop: GLOBAL CHINESE CATHOLICISM
2021-12-08 - 2021-12-10 | Via Zoom (Registration required)
In Collaboration with Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics
E-WORKSHOP: GLOBAL CHINESE CATHOLICISM
ONLINE – 8, 9, 10 December 2021 ​
This workshop explores the lived realities of Chinese Catholic communities established around the world as well as interactions among them and with Chinese Catholics in China.
​While most of the literature on Chinese Catholicism focuses either on its history in mainland China or on its complicated relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, this workshop turns the spotlight on the many Chinese Catholic communities who have long been living in Sao Paulo, Milano, Melbourne, Mexico, Kuala Lumpur, etc. Often, those communities are presented as a result of past migrations or as a mere attempt to preserve a particular ethno-religious identity. Thus, little attention is given to their on-going transformation and development – nor to their relations to other Chinese catholic communities present either around the globe or in mainland China. Furthermore, while social scientists have been paying a renewed interest in the Chinese diaspora and its religious dimensions, little attention has been oriented toward global Chinese Catholicism. Therefore, this e-workshop intends to not only investigate the diversity of global Chinese Catholic communities but also their current evolutions and networking.

To explore the on-going transformation of Global Chinese Catholicism, applicants are invited to consider the following questions:
What are the main features of Chinese Catholic communities present around the world? Which kind of ‘Chineseness’ are they producing and displaying? How are regional Chinese languages (Cantonese, Hokkien, etc.) and distinctive rituals (Lunar New Year, etc.) shaping their collective identities – as well as their relationship to specific regions of the People’s Republic of China (Provinces in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao)?How is the Catholic religion passed on within families? What are the consequences of a settlement outside the country of origin on the transfer of the faith to the following generations? Does the secularization of certain countries have an influence on the passing on of the Catholic religion?How do ethnically Chinese laypeople, extended families, and clergy members interact and shape those Chinese Catholic communities and their transnational interactions? How are they mobilizing new technologies and digital platforms to form and reform their communities and networks? How are Chinese Catholics living in Manila, Paris, Mexico, etc. negotiating their ethno-religious specificities with local governmental and ecclesial authorities? How do they respond to local socio-political and theological ideologies defining plurality as well as social and religious coexistence?What are the transnational networks and circulations that global Chinese Catholicism generates (migrations for work, study, marriage, etc.)? How is the new global importance of China impacting those networks? (For instance, Chinese Catholics from mainland China going for pilgrimages to Rome, Paris, Saigon, Manilla; the influx of Chinese priests and nuns from mainland China serving those Global Chinese communities). How is the growing international presence of China transforming those Chinese Catholic communities? Which kind of new economic, political, religious opportunities and challenges does it bring? How are global Chinese Catholic communities responding to renewed anti-Chinese sentiments that the growing presence of China and the Covid-19 pandemic can generate?​
This e-workshop is the first step of a collaborative project sponsored by ISAC and BRINFAITH to foster research on Global Chinese Catholicism. This e-workshop will occur online through zoom. It will be on December 8, 9, and 10, from 8 pm to 10 pm (Singapore Time), to accommodate researchers around the globe.
​

REGISTRATION
If you are interested in auditing or joining this e-workshop, please register by clicking on the link below or by sending an email to: globalchinesecatholicism@gmail.com.

WORKSHOP COORDINATORS
Eva Salerno and Angeline Wong

Registration

Dec 8Dec 9Dec 10

Wednesday, 8 December 2021
8.00 p.m. (Singapore Time) : Opening Remarks: Eva Salerno and Angeline Wong
PANEL 1 – Moderator: Jonathan Tan

8.05 p.m.: 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines:
China and the Chinese Connections
Teresita Ang See (Past President of Philippine Association for Chinese Studies; Executive Trustee, Kaisa Heritage Center, Philippines)

8.25 p.m.: Chinese-Filipino Catholicism: Fusion or Confusion?
Fr. Aristotle C. Dy (School President, Xavier School, Philippines)
​
8.45 p.m.: Q&A Session

Thursday, 9 December 2021

PANEL 2 – Moderator: Michel Chambon
8.00 p.m. (Singapore Time): The Pastoral Work of the Catholic Clergy with regard to the Chinese Diaspora in Lyon (France)
LIVE Yu-Sion (Sociologist, Université de La Reunion, France)

8.20 p.m.: Making Nuns in Manila
George Bayuga (Instructor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, United States)
​
8.40 p.m.: Q&A Session

Friday, 10 December 2021

PANEL 3 – Moderator: Bernardo Brown
​
8.00 p.m. (Singapore Time): Hakka migrants and Chinese Catholics in Jamaica
Zichan Qiu (Research Assistant, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) and Ji Li (Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

8.20 p.m.: Dialogue in a Multireligious and Political Ecosystem: Understanding Catholic Relations with Other Religions in Mainland China
Stephanie M. Wong (Assistant Professor of Theology, Valparaiso University, Indiana, US)
​
8.40 p.m.: Q&A Session
​
9:45 p.m.: Concluding Remarks, David Palmer BRINFAITH
