ASIAR

Time and the River: Temporal and Material Flows and the Potency of Life on the Mekong
2023-04-26 19:30 - 21:00 (Asia/Hong_Kong) | 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

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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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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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”.

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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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

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

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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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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“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 | 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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Where Christians and Other Believers Meet: A Re-examination of Christianity in Chinese Societies
2024-11-08 15:00 - 16:30 | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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Where Christians and Other Believers Meet:
A Re-examination of Christianity in Chinese Societies

Date/Time: November 8, 2024, 15:00 – 16:30 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Rm 201, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
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ABSTRACTIt has been reported that Chinese societies (including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore) have high levels of religious diversity. It is imperative to locate Christianity in this diverse religious context in order to reexamine the role of Christianity in Chinese societies. With reference to the ideas of common grace in Christian theologians Abraham Kuyper (Netherlands, 1837—1920) and of religious humility/relativity in Reinhold Niebuhr (USA, 1892—1971), this paper offers a theological and ethical analysis of Christians’ encounter with other believers in social and cultural life in Chinese societies. Many Chinese Christians are wrestled with the issues of “toward the public” and “toward non-Christians.” Bearding this in mind, this paper proposes that Christians be realistic without imposition of “confessional bonds” for state and society, on the one hand, and Christians appreciate and be open to other believers’ virtues and efforts and thus work together towards progress and flourishing in various spheres of life, on the other.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERZhibin Xie received his Ph. D. from The University of Hong Kong. He is adjunct professor at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong. He is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton. He serves on the advisory board for International Journal of Public Theology and on the editorial board for Logos & Pneuma: Chinese Journal of Theology. He also served on the Executive Committee (Asia Representative) at the Global Network of Public Theology (2017-2020).
Zhibin Xie’ s research areas include Christian philosophy & ethics, public theology, and Christianity in China. He has published monographs Religious Diversity and Public Religion in China (in English, Ashgate, 2006 & Routledge, 2021), Moral Triumph: The Public Face of Christianity in China (in English, Fortress Press, 2023), Public Theology and Globalization: A Study in Christian Ethics of Max L. Stackhouse (in Chinese, Religious Culture Press, 2008 & 2022), A Pluralistic and Just Society: An Interpretation of Sino-Christian Ethics (in Chinese, Logos & Pneuma Press, 2023). He is editor of Protestantism and Modernity: Kuyper, Weber, and Troeltsch (in Chinese, Logos & Pneuma Press, 2022). He also published articles in English in journals including Journal of Church and State, Theology Today, International Journal of Public Theology, Political Theology, and Studies in Interreligious Dialogue and contributed chapter to the volume of The Routledge Companion to Christian Ethics.

ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU;
CO-ORGANIZERSFaith and Global Engagement, HKIHSS, HKU;
Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, HK.

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Daoism, Ecology and Sustainable Investing 道教、生態、可持續投資
2024-12-02 12:00 - 13:30 | G/F Lecture Hall, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM
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Daoism, Ecology and Sustainable Investing
道教、生態、可持續投資

Date: Dec 2, 2024 (Mon)
Time: 12:00 – 13:30 (HKT)
Language: English & Mandarin (with translation)
Venue: Lecture Hall, G/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong & Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)
Register for In-person participation: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wVvecmqfQT78R8
Register for online participation: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqduCtpj4tHN0R1MNtGE47RjyrJ3K6r7ZK

Keynote Speaker:
Prof James Miller (Author of China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future) (Duke Kunshan University)
主題發言人：苗建時教授 (Prof James Miller)（杜克崑山大學）
About the Keynote Speaker:
His research focuses on the intersection of religion and ecology in China. He has published six books including “China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future” (Columbia, 2017). He is noted worldwide as an expert in Daoism, China’s indigenous religion. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, environmental science, U.S. studies, religious studies and philosophy.
Miller has a B.A. (honors) in Chinese studies from Durham University, a B.A. (honors) and M.A. in theological and religious studies from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in religious and theological studies from Boston University. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he was director of the School of Religion at Queen’s University, Canada.

Opening Remark:
Venerable Daoist Master ZHANG Mingxin (Vice President of Chinese Daoist Association; President of Mount Qingcheng Daoist Association)
開幕致詞： 張明心 道長（中國道教協會副會長，青城山道教協會會長）

Discussants:
Martin PALMER (Founding Director of the Green Climate Fund Faith Art Media Alliance)
FAN Ziwei ( Senior Research Assistant of HKIHSS; advisor to the secretariat of the World Federation of Daoism)
Anthony CHEUNG (Vice Chairman and Convenor of Green Finance, Friends of the Earth (HK))
LI Haibo (Chairman of Chengdu Daoist Entrepreneurship and Technology Research Institute)
評述人
彭馬田 (Martin PALMER) (聯合國全球氣候變化框架綠色氣候基金信仰藝術傳播聯盟創始總監)
范紫微 （香港大學香港人文社會研究所高級研究助理、世界道教聯合會顧問）
張震宇 （香港地球之友副主席）
李海波（成都市道商科技研究院院長）

Host: Prof. David A. Palmer (Professor, Sociology & HKIHSS, HKU)
主持人：宗樹人教授（香港大學社會學及香港人文社會研究所）

ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU;

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Faith and True Wealth 信仰與真財富 | World Religion Day 2025
2025-02-16 14:00 - 17:00 | EY wavespace, Citic Tower, 22nd Floor, Admiralty
World Religion Day 2025
Faith and True Wealth
信仰與真財富

What is true wealth? Is it money, or more than money? What is spiritual wealth? What is the relationship between spiritual and material wealth? Does religion want us to be rich or poor? Can we be spiritual in a financial capital like Hong Kong? The Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼis of Hong Kong invites you to join World Religion Day and consider these questions through interfaith dialogue, devotions and music with members of different religious and non-religious communities in HK.
什麼是真正的財富？是金錢？還是不止於金錢？什麼是精神財富？精神財富和物質財富之間的關係是什麼？宗教希望我們富有還是貧窮？在香港這樣的金融之都，我們能否保持靈性？香港巴哈伊總會邀請您參與世界宗教日，透過跨宗教對話、靈修和音樂，與香港不同宗教和非宗教社群的成員一起思考這些問題。

Date: Feb 16 (Sun), 2025
Time: 2 – 5 pm (HKT)
Language: English & Chinese
Format: Prayers, singing & chanting performances + Interfaith dialogue + Panel sharings
Venue: EY Wavespace, 22/F Citic Tower, 20 Tim Mei Avenue, Central, Hong Kong.
Directions:
You can reach Citic Tower from Admiralty MTR station.
Get out at Admiralty Exit D ( United Centre) and walk towards Legco Building / Central Government Offices using the overhead walkway.
On the right hand side you will see entrance to Citic Tower 2/F.
The lifts to 22/ F Wavespace are on 1/F of the building.Note that, when you reach the entrance to the Citic tower from the overhead walkway, you will be on the 2/F of the building. But you need to go down to the 1st floor to find the lift to the 22/F.

Host: The Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼis of Hong Kong
Co-organizers:
Asian Religious Connections Research Center, HKIHSS, HKU
Great Future Social Innovate Center（Beijing）
Hong Kong Network on Religion and Peace

Register TODAY:
Google Form https://forms.gle/BAuhAXKTUbf6to1r9 or
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

Human Nature and Religious Diversity: Does Religious Diversity Have a Common Anthropological Basis?
2025-03-18 14:30 - 15:45 | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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Human Nature and Religious Diversity:
Does Religious Diversity Have a Common Anthropological Basis?

Date/Time: March 18 (TUE), 2025, 14:30 – 15:45 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Hybrid @ ZOOM & Rm 201, May Hall, HKU (Registration is required.)
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ABSTRACTIn a world that is growing ever closer together, the question also arises as to whether the many different religions in the common world have a common anthropological basis. What connects the religions of the world with each other in the midst of all their diversity? Is there an anthropological theory of the pluralism of religions? And what would such a theory have to look like in which the different religions are conceptually linked?
The lecture explores this question by first (1) concentrating on the diversity of religions, which are an important part of cultures. After this praise of religious plurality, the lecture then shows (2) what a theory of religious pluralism cannot look like. Again using the example of religion, it is then explained (3) how religion and religious diversity are to be understood when they are considered from a human and thus anthropological point of view. A conception is then presented (4) by the German philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, showing how religious diversity, the plurality of religions, can be understood conceptually on the basis of common anthropological insights.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERProf. Hans-Peter Grosshans is a distinguished German theologian and philosopher of religion, renowned for his expertise in hermeneutics, methodology and philosophy of science. Currently, he is professor (chair) for Systematic Theology at University of Münster, Germany. He also serves as Guest Professor (2024-2025) at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong.
After studying theology and philosophy at universities of Tübingen and Oxford, he did his doctorate under the supervision of Eberhard Jüngel at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Tübingen.
From 1990 to 2002 he taught at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Tübingen. He then held teaching positions at the theological faculties of the universities of Hamburg, Munich and Zürich before in 2008 he took over his present position as professor (chair) for Systematic Theology and director of the Institute for Ecumenical Theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of University of Münster. From 2016–2020 he was dean of his faculty. He is the present president of the German Society for Philosophy of Religion.

ORGANIZERSASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU;
CO-ORGANIZERSFaith and Global Engagement, HKIHSS, HKU;
Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, HK.

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Joker: The Flip Side of Ancient Chinese Cosmology and Science in Hecun
2025-04-28 12:30 - 13:45 | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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Joker: The Flip Side of Ancient Chinese Cosmology and Science in Hecun

Date: April 28 (Mon), 2025
Time: 12:30 – 13:45 (HK Time)
Language: English
Venue: Hybrid @ ZOOM & Rm 201, May Hall, HKU (Registration is required.)
Register for In-person participation: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9yjCPquwFMkuajA
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ABSTRACTDrawing on 16 months of fieldwork and historical material on Fu (符) rituals, this talk explores the distinctions between Fu activities and other local sacrificial practices that involve approaching spiritual powers with offerings, beseeching or begging for assistance. I pseudonymize my field village located in south-central China as Hecun. Through Fu rituals, Hecun villagers attempt to directly manipulate or even command the spiritual forces. Drawing on historical evidence, I propose that this fluctuating human-spiritual power dynamic can be traced to the transformation of ancient Chinese cosmology. I argue that in the pre-imperial courts there was a gradual technical transition from magical rituals to religious sacrifices. But in the local cosmology of present-day Hecun, both magic and sacrifice are evident. This combinatory cosmology has moved like a “capsule” through time, composing the deep-rooted characteristics of Chinese cosmology that have “sedimented”. I further suggest that the human-spiritual power dynamic reflects a well-established local understanding of how people experience the capricious environmental forces to which they are immediately exposed. This local understanding contrasts with the scientific outlook towards “nature” that underpins these state-led weather-water projects in Hecun. By interweaving relevant anthropological discussion around “nature” with analyses of local rituals, this talk provides a nuanced understanding of local cosmology and offers insight into the entanglement of magic, religion and science.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERNie Youping is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at CUHK. My research interests include landscape, cosmology, state governance, and rural China. My dissertation, A Geography of Uncertainty: Weather, Technology, and Cosmology in South-central China, explores the entanglement of state technocratic projects and local cosmology, i.e., local spiritual beliefs, in understanding and acting upon the concept of “uncertainty” associated with weather patterns in a Chinese village. This village is situated in the Dongting Lake basin, a region prone to extreme climate fluctuations between drought and flooding.

ORGANIZERASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

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The Revelatory Imagination: Thought Experiments and the Pluralist Turn
2025-05-15 15:00 - 16:30 | Hybrid – Room 201, May Hall, HKU and via Zoom (registration required)
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The Revelatory Imagination:Thought Experiments and the Pluralist Turn

Date/Time: Thursday, May 15, 2025, 15:00 – 16:30 (HK time)
Language: English
Venue: Rm 201, May Hall, HKU & Via ZOOM (Registration is required.)

ABSTRACTThis talk explores the imagination as a mode of divine revelation and argues that thought experiments – commonly associated with the natural sciences – possess deep theological significance. Prof. Fehige proposes that revelation does not merely accommodate the imagination but advances through it. This claim forms part of a broader response to the pluralist turn in the history and philosophy of science, which calls on theology to reconsider its own epistemic frameworks. By re-framing thought experiments in pluralist terms, a constructive theology of revelation is offered that embraces epistemic diversity and affirms the cognitive significance of the imagination. This approach not only bridges disciplinary boundaries but also invites a renewed understanding of how theology might respond more faithfully to the complexities of a pluralist world.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERProfessor Yiftach Fehige holds Ph.D. degrees in both philosophy (2004) and theology (2011), and holds a B.Sc. In physics (1998). He has been a core faculty member at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) at the University of Toronto since 2007. His work primarily explores the evolving landscape of science and religion, particularly at the intersection of Eastern and Western perspectives, a featured in his edited volume Science and Religion: East and West (2016) and his latest monograph Thought Experiments, Science, and Theology (2023).

ORGANIZER
Faith and Global Engagement, HKIHSS, HKU;
CO-ORGANIZER
ASIAR Research Cluster, HKIHSS, HKU

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How Daoism Became American: A Tale of Translation, Conservation, Immigration, Appropriation and Impersonation
2025-11-17 15:00 - 17:00 | 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).​
