Conference: Religion and Politics in Greater China

This conference, to be held at Oregon State University, explores 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.

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)