How have religion practitioners shaped their faith and their religious experiences in response to state policies on religion? How have they drawn upon their religions as spiritual/ideological resources in addressing social and political changes induced by the state? By tackling these two questions from both historical and contemporary perspectives, conference participants as a group will explore the interaction between the state and religion followers, and the variety of modes of social-political action adopted by the religious to achieve their goals. In addition, they will also contemplate the continuity and/or discontinuity between past and present in the history of Chinese religion.
Click here to view a pdf of the conference lecture abstracts.
Conference Schedule:
Friday, October 26, 2012
(Agriculture Science Room, LaSells Stewart Center)
Panel I: Historical Perspectives
9:15 a.m.–noon
Cecily McCaffrey, Willamette University
(Discussant: Kevin O’Brien (UC Berkeley))
“Negotiating with the enemy: The struggle for hearts, minds, and bodies during the White Lotus Uprising (1796–1804)”
Hung-yok Ip, Oregon State University
(Discussant: Susan McCarthy)
“Compliant resistance: Buddhism, Xuyun, and the early Communist regime”
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Pace University
(Discussant: Carsten Vala (Loyola University Maryland))
“Faith and defiance: The experience and memory of Chinese Christian prisoners in Maoist China”
Panel II: Contemporary Scenes I: China
1:30–4:45 p.m.
Paul Mariani, SJ, Santa Clara University
(Discussant: Carsten Vala)
“What is the underground church?: The re-emergence of the underground/patriotic church conflict in reform-era Shanghai”
Xi Lian, Hanover College
(Discussant: Carsten Vala)
“Protestant intellectuals and political dissent in contemporary China”
Yanfei Sun, Columbia University
(Discussant: Kevin O’Brien)
“The rise of the Jingkong Buddhist movement in China: 1984–2008”
Gareth Fisher, Syracuse University
(Discussant: Kevin O’Brien)
“Chinese Buddhists and the creation of a new moral order: Resistance or accommodation?”
Saturday, October 27, 2012
(Agriculture Science Room, LaSells Stewart Center)
Panel III: Contemporary Scenes II: Resistance and politics from transnational, trans-regional, and comparative perspectives
9:00–11:30 a.m.
André Laliberté, University of Ottawa
(Discussant: Gareth Fisher)
“Compassion instead of social justice: Chinese Buddhism and the public interest”
Susan K. McCarthy, Providence College
(Discussant: Kevin O’Brien)
“Serving the People, re-purposing the state: Religious charity and resistance in China"
James Blumenthal, Oregon State University
(Discussant: Hung-yok Ip)
“The relationship between non-violence and justice in the thought of Samdhong Rinpoche”
Panel IV: Contemporary Scenes III: Taiwan
1:00–4:15 p.m.
Wei-an Chang, National Chiao Tung University
(Discussant: André Laliberté)
“Silent social reform: The Compassion Relief Tzu-chi Foundation as a model for social change”
Yu-Chen Li, National Cheng Chi University
(Discussant: Robert Weller)
“Education and charisma: Buddhist nuns and lay women in contemporary Taiwan”
Murray Rubinstein, Baruch College, CUNY
(Discussant: Carsten Vala)
“Christianity and the state in post–World War II Taiwan: Exploring the spectrum from accommodation to Non-Involvement to Resistance, 1947–2011”
Robert Weller, Boston University
(Discussant: André Laliberté)
“Global religious trends in a Taiwanese context”
4:15–5:00 pm Conclusion and brainstorming (closed discussion)
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