How Daoism Became American: A Tale of Translation, Conservation, Immigration, Appropriation and Impersonation
2025-11-17 15:00 - 17:00 (Asia/Hong_Kong) | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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How Daoism Became American: A Tale of Translation, Conservation, Immigration, Appropriation and Impersonation

Date/Time: November 17, 2025, 15:00 – 17:00 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Rm 201, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Register for In-person and online participation: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/MQ_Y4LmhRX6DcgkxNGRCNg

ABSTRACTDaoism is the indigenous organized religion of China, with a two-thousand-year history, an enormous canon of sacred texts, and a complicated liturgy. However, until fairly recently, Daoism was best known in the West, if at all, as a quaint and exotic philosophy of quietism and mysticism. This was how Daoism was depicted in most readily available sources of information, including anthologies of Chinese philosophy and world religion textbooks. According to modernist Chinese intellectuals of the 20th century, Daoism may have inspired a lot of Chinese art and poetry, but it was not a spiritual option for modern Chinese, and certainly not for North Americans. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, Daoism became a plausible spiritual path for Euro-Americans, not by becoming more like Chinese Daoism in either of its two current denominations in China (Quanzhen or Zhengyi), but rather by being completely taken out of its religious setting, and reconstituted as a series of modular, individual practices.
This interactive lecture will explore the various origins of Daoism in America, based on original research. It will argue that American Daoism is a definable and distinct religious tradition of North America. American Daoism was neither exported whole cloth from China nor simply invented by Euro-Americans. Rather it arose from collaboration between progressive elements in American society and elite, lettered Chinese immigrants, nostalgic for their own displaced childhoods. This lecture will ask the question “how much can a religious tradition change before it is no longer a tradition at all?” It will be of interest to anyone interested in how Asian culture is translated into Western context, and issues of appropriation and authenticity.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERElijah Siegler is a professor of Religious Studies at College of Charleston, a public university in South Carolina. He is the leading expert in the field of American Daoism, and has lectured and published widely on that field, including the award-winning book Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and Predicament of Modern Spirituality (University of Chicago Press, 2017, co-authored with David A. Palmer).

ORGANIZERASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

Buddhist Manuscript Studies in Southeast Asia: The case of Luang Prabang, Laos
2026-01-16 15:00 - 16:30 | Rm 201, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong (Map), or Via Zoom
Professor Volker Grabowsky
Professor of Thai Studies and Head of the Southeast Asia Department at the Asia‑Africa‑Institute, University of Hamburg

ABSTRACT
This lecture explores Buddhist manuscript cultures in mainland Southeast Asia through the case of the old royal Lao capital of Luang Prabang, drawing on more than fifteen years of research conducted in collaboration with the Buddhist Archives of Luang Prabang. While over ninety percent of surviving Lao manuscripts are written on palm leaves using the religious Dhamma script, their material forms, uses, and social functions reveal a remarkably rich and diverse manuscript culture.​ The lecture introduces the broader Tai manuscript tradition, including its characteristic biscriptality, and situates Lao materials within regional scholarship. It then presents the results of extensive digitisation and cataloguing projects supported by international institutions, which together document more than 3,500 manuscripts from major monasteries in Luang Prabang.​ Particular attention is given to the structure and function of colophons as sources for understanding manuscript production, monastic education, and merit‑making practices. Colophons reveal the roles of scribes, sponsors, and donors, and illustrate how manuscripts sustained Buddhist learning and merit across generations.​ The lecture also examines modern transformations influenced by new writing tools, printing technologies, and changing material preferences. Despite these shifts, Lao Buddhist manuscript culture remains vibrant, reflecting both continuity and change within the Lao cultural landscape.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Volker Grabowsky is Professor of Thai Language and Culture (Thai Studies) and Head of the Southeast Asia Department at the Asia‑Africa‑Institute, University of Hamburg. A specialist in the history and culture of the Tai ethnic groups of mainland Southeast Asia and Southwest China, he previously held a professorship in Southeast Asian History at the University of Münster (1999–2009) and served as a DAAD visiting lecturer at the National University of Laos (1996–1999).​ He has published widely on Tai manuscript cultures, Buddhist literary traditions, and regional historiography. His works include major studies and translations of Tai Lü chronicles, such as the Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng (2008) and the Chronicles of Sipsòng Panna (2012).​ Since 2011, he has led several research projects on Tai manuscript cultures; his most recent edited volume is Manuscript Cultures and Epigraphy in the Tai World (2022).​
